MANILA: A Philippine senator and key ally of Sara Duterte was charged with graft on Friday (July 3), the country's ombudsman said, days before the vice president's Senate impeachment trial is to begin.
The charges against Senator Rodante Marcoleta (pic), tied to his alleged failure to declare US$1.2 million in unused election campaign funds, include "plunder", a non-bailable offence in the South-East Asian country of 116 million.
The decision to file charges was not "made lightly or by choice", the ombudsman's office said in a Friday statement.
"The evidence includes three cash donations totalling p75 million ($1.2 million), undeclared in the senator's (statement of assets and liabilities) and campaign finance reports," the statement said, adding Marcoleta had "publicly confirmed receiving the money".
It was not immediately known if a warrant for the 72-year-old's arrest had been issued. Calls to Marcoleta's office were not returned.
On Tuesday, thousands of members of the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) church, a powerful Philippine sect with ties to the Duterte political dynasty, took to the streets to protest the looming charges, grinding traffic to a halt in the capital.
INC spokesman Edwil Zabala at the time slammed the case against Marcoleta as "selective justice".
Marcoleta is the second Duterte-aligned senator to be charged in just over a month, with Jose 'Jinggoy' Estrada jailed over his alleged role in a massive corruption scandal involving bogus flood control projects.
A third Duterte ally, Senator Ronald 'Bato' dela Rosa, is in hiding after narrowly escaping arrest on an International Criminal Court warrant over his role in the deadly drug war conducted by the vice president's father, ex-president Rodrigo Duterte.
All three men were considered all-but-certain votes against convicting Duterte at her Senate impeachment trial, which begins Monday. A guilty verdict requires 16 votes in the 24-seat body.
The House of Representatives on May 11 voted by a wide margin to impeach Duterte on allegations of graft, corruption, bribery and an alleged assassination plot against one-time ally President Ferdinand Marcos.
A guilty verdict at the Senate trial, which could stretch for months, would see her removed as vice president and permanently banned from elected office. - AFP
