Mayor Abundio ‘JP’ Punsalan Jr. of San Simon town in Pampanga is set to be arraigned before the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan’s Seventh Division this Wednesday, two months after his Aug. 5 entrapment for alleged extortion of a Filipino-Chinese businessman.
The Division’s Presiding Judge Geraldine Faith Econg also set the pre-trial of Punsalan on the same date, a copy of her Sept. 9 order showed.
The arraignment and pre-trial followed after the mayor surrendered and posted cash bonds of P90,000 for a case of violations of Republic Act No. 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and for Article 293 of the Revised Penal Code (robbery by means of extortion), the order showed.
The San Simon-based Real Steel Corporation filed the complaint that accused the mayor of demanding P80 million in exchange for not overturning Municipal Ordinance No. 24-0025 that granted tax incentives to the company.
The demand was allegedly accompanied by threats that Real Steel’s incentives would be revoked if payment was not made.
The National Bureau of Investigation entrapped Punsalan last Aug. 5 at a restaurant in Clark Freeport just as he was taking a bag containing cash amounting to more or less P30 million.
Real Steel’s lawyer Philip Advent said conviction under these charges ‘carries penalties of imprisonment, dismissal from service, and perpetual disqualification from holding public office.’
Punsalan returned to work last September 3 after the Regional Trial Court Branch 206 in Muntinlupa granted his petition for habeas corpus on the ground of ‘unlawful detention’ in the NBI custodial center at the New Bilibid Prison.
Also released were Ed Ryan Dimla, as well as his security personnel, Domingo Ramones, and Rodolfo Dagdag Jr., Philip Ronnie Jimenez Sr., Rufino Cruz, and Erwin Calma.
Also pending in the Office of the Ombudsman is Real Steel’s urgent motion to suspend Punsalan in an administrative case for grave misconduct and serious dishonesty.
Real Steel also filed an administrative case against the mayor before the provincial board of Pampanga./coa