Former Makati City mayor Elenita Binay and two others were acquitted of graft by the Sandiganbayan on Thursday, November 17, in connection with the purchase of overpriced office furniture for city hall from December 1999 to February 2000.
The anti-graft court’s Fourth Division junked the graft case of Binay; Ernesto Aspillaga, former head of the city’s general services department; and Vivian Edna Edurise, corporate officer of winning contractor Office Gallery International. Inc.
In the 38-page resolution signed by Associate Justices Jose Hernandez, Alex Quiroz, and Geraldine Faith Econg, the court said the prosecution failed to establish their allegation that the purchase of P13.25 million worth of office furniture was overpriced by P3.6 million.
At the same time, they failed to prove that Binay and her co-accused gave any party any unwarranted benefit, advantage or preference in the discharge of their functions.
Her separate graft case before the Fifth Division—for alleged overpricing and excessive purchase of furniture and fixtures worth P72.06 million in 1999—was earlier dismissed.
Binay still has a malversation charge before the Third Division for the anomalous purchase in 2001 of hospital beds and sterilizers worth P45 million for the city’s public hospital.
The post Elenita Binay Acquitted in Overpriced Office Furniture appeared first on Manila Bulletin.
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