The Sandiganbayan Third Division has scheduled hearings on Senator Rodante Marcoleta’s preventive suspension and petition for bail in connection with the plunder case filed against him.
During Friday’s pretrial proceedings, Third Division Chairperson Associate Justice Karl Miranda said the hearing on Marcoleta’s preventive suspension is tentatively set for August 18, while the first hearing on his petition for bail is scheduled for September 3.
The court had earlier ordered Marcoleta to explain why he should not be preventively suspended from office. Miranda also directed the prosecution to submit its comment on Marcoleta’s manifestation seeking to withhold the issuance of his preventive suspension, noting that it raises substantial matters that must be addressed.
Marcoleta, along with former Rep. Mike Defensor and businessmen Joseph Espiritu and Aristotle Viray, faces a non-bailable plunder charge over an alleged P75-million campaign donation that prosecutors claim was not declared in his financial and campaign disclosures while he was serving as a party-list representative.
During the pretrial, Marcoleta also agreed to stipulate that he was a public official at the time of the alleged offense, a key element in the plunder case. Associate Justice Miranda said the stipulation would help make the proceedings “faster and simpler.”
