Control freak
| FRONTLINE |
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| Ninez Cacho-Olivares |
The Sandiganbayan’s approval of the plea bargain agreement between the prosecutors and retired Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia was a given. There really was no other choice, with Garcia having admitted guilt to the lesser charge of bribery and graft, instead of plunder.
But the Palace and Noynoy’s aides aren’t giving up — even when they know it is a lost cause. They make all the noises of appealing the case before the Supreme Court to get that plea bargain overturned, mainly to keep up with the Noynoy posture of going after all the crooks.
No one knows just how the high court will rule on this appeal — if it does get to decide on the case, but it would be fairly difficult to overturn the anti-graft court’s ruling, owing to the fact that this would be a case of double jeopardy, which has to be upheld — else, the Garcia plea bargain, once overturned, will screw up once again the laws of the land — or the interpretation of double jeopardy, not to mention the fact that if overturned by a higher court, no plea bargain agreement entered into by the courts can ever be taken seriously, since such an agreement can still be overturned by the high court..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110511com2.html
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