The Sandiganbayan has once again rejected the bid of former Bureau of Customs (BoC) chief Nicanor Faeldon to have his graft case dismissed, following his challenge to the prosecution’s evidence in connection with the alleged P34.043 million rice smuggling in 2017.
Faeldon filed a motion for reconsideration in February, urging the anti-graft court to reverse its earlier ruling that denied his initial plea, which sought to dismiss his graft cases due to the prosecution’s “failure” to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
In his previous petition, Faeldon argued, among other things, that the prosecution's evidence was not only insufficient and inadmissible but also did not constitute “strong, clear, and compelling evidence” to warrant a guilty verdict. He further denied involvement in any grand conspiracy to commit the crime charged.
Three of his co-accused — Cebu Lite Trading Inc. officers Lucio Roger Lim Jr., Ambrosio Ursal, and Rowena Lim — filed similar motions, but the court also denied their pleas, stating that “granting [them] leave will unnecessarily stall the proceedings.”
The case stemmed from a complaint filed by former senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson before the Ombudsman, accusing Faeldon and others of allowing the entry of at least 40,000 bags of forfeited smuggled Vietnamese white rice through the Port of Cagayan without the necessary permits in 2017.
Faeldon questioned the prosecution’s evidence, arguing that Lacson’s allegations — on which the case is based — were not drawn from personal knowledge but from a third-party source.
In his latest motion, Faeldon claimed that the court’s earlier denial of his request for leave to file a demurrer to evidence was neither reasonable nor well-founded.
A motion for leave to file a demurrer to evidence allows the accused to challenge the sufficiency of the prosecution’s evidence before the trial proceeds, subject to the court’s approval.
The court, however, stood firm in its decision, finding “no compelling reasons” to revise its earlier ruling.
“From this understanding of the rule, neither Faeldon’s asseveration that the denial of his motion for leave to file demurrer to evidence ‘robbed him of the opportunity to have the case against him dismissed at the earliest possible stage’ nor his claim that it ‘denied him the chance to be spared from further unnecessary burden, expense, anxiety of a public trial’ has merit,” the court ruled.
In 2021, Faeldon also petitioned the Sandiganbayan to drop the graft charges against him, but that plea was similarly denied.