Palace formally charges, suspends prosecutor in Garcia plea bargain deal

Press Release
June 15, 2011

MALACAÑANG  –  Malacañang has formally charged and placed under a 90-day preventive suspension Special Prosecutor Wendell Barreras Sulit for graft and betrayal of public trust in connection with the questionable plea bargain deal she had entered into with retired Maj. Gen. Carlos F. Garcia.

In a two-page formal charge signed by Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr. and issued on Tuesday, Sulit was suspended for three months to ensure that there will be no tampering with evidence and interference in her investigation.

“Pending investigation of said charges, respondent (Sulit) is hereby placed under preventive suspension for a period of 90 days, effective upon receipt hereof, considering the seriousness of the charges, the existence of prima facie case against respondent that she is probably guilty thereof which warrants her removal from the service and respondent’s continuance in the office may pose threat to the safety and integrity of the record and other evidence,” the Palace stated in the order.

According to Malacañang, Sulit violated existing rules and jurisprudence when she “knowingly and willfully” entered into a plea bargain deal with Garcia in the latter’s P303-million plunder case pending before the Sandiganbayan.

The Palace alleged that Sulit, together with her deputies, “impaired deliberately the case for the prosecution by ignoring and abandoning evidence favorable to the interest of the government and presenting evidence adverse to its cause.”

It also alleged that Sulit failed to discharge her mandated duty of prosecuting erring public officials with utmost responsibility, integrity and professional competence.

Sulit was also accused of causing undue injury to the government and gave unwarranted benefits to Garcia through “manifest partiality, evident bad faith and gross inexcusable negligence.”

Malacañang gave Sulit a period of 10 days within which to submit her answer to the formal charge before the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs (ODESLA).

The administrative case against Sulit was an offshoot of an investigation conducted by the House Committee on Justice into the plea bargain agreement between the Office of the Ombudsman and Garcia.