THE Sandiganbayan has ordered the preventive suspension of Pangasinan Provincial Accountant Arturo Soriano for graft charges filed against him in connection with the Metro Rail Transit controversy in his private capacity.

The Sandiganbayan’s Third Division reportedly ordered Soriano’s 90-day suspension.

Soriano is a co-accused in the graft case against former Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT3) chief Al Vitangcol III over an alleged anomalous maintenance deal in 2012. He is Vitangcol’s uncle-in-law.

Although Soriano was charged in his private capacity, the resolution stated that “it does not render him immune from the application of Section 13 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.”

Soriano was listed as an incorporator of PH Trams that won the MRT3 interim maintenance contract in 2012.

Soriano, Vitangcol, and 4 other PH Trams executives were charged with graft after state investigators found that the contract was awarded to their company without public bidding, even if PH Trams was not qualified under the procurement law.

Prosecutors also said Vitangcol intentionally concealed the fact that Soriano was his uncle-in-law.

Soriano had asked the court to reverse the Ombudsman’s motion to suspend him, arguing that he did not participate in the MRT deal in his official capacity as a Pangasinan official.

But the court cited the Anti-Graft Act which said that “the presumption is that unless the accused is suspended, he may frustrate his prosecution or commit further acts of malfeasance or do both. (Leonardo Micua)

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