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Grace Padaca, 49, a 2008 Ramon Magsaysay awardee & former Isabela governor arrived at 1 p.m. at the Sandiganbayan together with Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas and her lawyer Rogelio Vinluan to pay her bail of Php 70,000.
Roxas, who stood by the former governor and her lawyers during the interview, said the money for the bail came from President Aquino’s personal funds.
Grace Padaca admitted that President Benigno Aquino III offered her some financial assistance to post the Php 70,000 bail even in the previous months. However, she decided not to accept the previous offers considering that she did not hold any government position.
This week she changed her mind and she accepted the financial offer of the President due to the fact that she was appointed as the new elections commissioner of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and she realized that she could not perform her job if she remains incarcerated.
In May 2012, a warrant for her arrest was issued by the Sandiganbayan, although it was never served.
Warrants of arrest against Padaca's co-accused — former provincial legal officer Johnas Lamonera, former Roxas vice mayor Servando Soriano and private respondent Dionisio Pine, manager of the Economic Development for Western Isabela and Northern Luzon Foundation Inc. (EDWINLFI) — remains in force.
The former Isabela governor has been accused with graft and malversation of public funds for allegedly granting a P25-million credit facility for rice farmers to EDWINLFI, a non-government organization during her term as governor in 2006 without public bidding. In her defense, she said bidding was not required for the project and that the government was not damaged by the deal.
Palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda said he did not know why law enforcement agencies did not serve the arrest warrant despite its having been issued before her appointment, and despite Padaca’s claims that she had not been hiding.
“That’s why I’m neither afraid nor ashamed, I am not escaping or running away because in the first place, I could not run,” Padaca said, alluding to her being a person with disability.
Padaca said she never tried to evade arrest, claiming she was always ready to get arrested. In fact, she had an overnight bag packed and kept in her car so that she would be ready to be taken to prison any time in May.
“When a warrant of arrest was issued against Grace Padaca, [the late] Secretary Jesse Robredo spoke to her and spoke to the President. The President believes in the cause of Grace Padaca and the President told Secretary Robredo, ‘I will pay for the bail of Grace Padaca," he added.
Grace Padaca would assume her post at the Comelec on Monday, to dispel rumors that she would file her certificate of candidacy for governor today.
P.S.
As Isabela governor, Padaca, a 2008 Ramon Magsaysay awardee, actively campaigned against illegal logging by reactivating the anti-illegal logging task force in response to complaints by concerned citizens and groups in the province.
On December 5, 2007, then-US Ambassador to Manila Kristie Kenney personally conferred to Padaca the prestigious International Women of Courage Award, an award which was also conferred to former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It was bestowed on Padaca for her continued development of Isabela following a colorful stint as a broadcast journalist.
Other awards given to Padaca were the Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. Fellowships for Professional Development award (2006), and the First CEO Excel Awards (2005).
Source: PDI news, Philstar, Interaksyon news, GMA news