ONE OF THE respondents in a malversation case involving former partylist Rep. Zaldy Co filed before the Sandiganbayan’s Sixth Division an urgent motion seeking hospital arrest.
In a motion submitted to the Sandiganbayan, lawyer Edwin Labro argued that Juliet Calvo should be accorded with compassion after suffering a stroke on August 5, while being detained at the Camp Karingal in Quezon City.
Calvo is the former maintenance division chief of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Mimaropa region.
According to Labro, the former DPWH official was left paralyzed and “unable to communicate” although her condition is “stable and critical.”
Prosecutors found no reason to object to the motion of Calvo who, together with Co and several others, face a nonbailable charge for malversation of public funds through falsification of public documents over the notoriously famous flood control scandal.
However, Sandiganbayan Sixth Division chair Associate Justice Sarah Jane Fernandez deferred to render a decision, adding that the court would first summon her physician for questioning before ruling on the motion for hospital arrest.
Calvo earlier argued that her signing of a document which led to the release of funds for an allegedly anomalous project, was merely ministerial.
In its previous ruling, the Supreme Court said that an act is only considered ministerial when it does not require the exercise of discretion or judgment and is done in obedience to the mandate of a legal authority.
Calvo was dragged into the case involving a P289.4-million road dike project in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro, that state prosecutors said was found to have serious structural deficiencies.
Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon, who inspected the project site, discovered that the road dike only had a three-meter steel sheet pile (SSP), well below the 12-meter requirement.
Interestingly, a certificate of inspection (COI) dated March 18, 2024 and signed by Calvo declared that the SSPs in the project were compliant.
The COI is a requirement for the first progress billing for the project contractor identified as Sunwest Inc., an infrastructure and development company reportedly founded and owned by the fugitive partylist congressman.
