Palace formally charges, suspends prosecutor in Garcia plea bargain deal
MALACAÑANG has formally charged and placed under a 90-day preventive suspension Special Prosecutor Wendell Barreras Sulit for graft and betrayal of public trust in connection with the questionable plea bargain deal she had entered into with retired Maj. Gen. Carlos F. Garcia.
In a two-page formal charge signed by Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr. and issued on Tuesday, Sulit was suspended for three months to ensure that there will be no tampering with evidence and interference in her investigation.
According to the Palace, Sulit violated existing rules and jurisprudence when she “knowingly and willfully” entered into a plea bargain deal with Garcia in the latter’s P303-million plunder case pending before the Sandiganbayan.
The Palace alleged that Sulit, together with her deputies, “impaired deliberately the case for the prosecution by ignoring and abandoning evidence favorable to the interest of the government and presenting evidence adverse to its cause.”
It also alleged that Sulit failed to discharge her mandated duty of prosecuting erring public officials with utmost responsibility, integrity and professional competence. Sulit was also accused of causing undue injury to the government and gave unwarranted benefits to Garcia through “manifest partiality, evident bad faith and gross inexcusable negligence.”
Malacañang gave Sulit a period of 10 days within which to submit her answer to the formal charge before the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs (ODESLA). (PCOO)
