Ruby Tuason asks Sandiganbayan to overturn denial of US trip for eye treatment | ABS-CBN

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Ruby Tuason asks Sandiganbayan to overturn denial of US trip for eye treatment

Ruby Tuason asks Sandiganbayan to overturn denial of US trip for eye treatment

Adrian Ayalin,

ABS-CBN News

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MANILA - Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam witness Ruby Tuason has appealed the decision of the Sandiganbayan 3rd Division denying her travel request, submitting a more detailed and shorter itinerary for her cataract procedure at the University of California, Los Angeles.

In a motion for reconsideration filed by lawyer Dennis Manalo, Tuason’s trip was cut short to one month. Her initial request was for a furlough of 45 days.

The motion was filed last March 18 and is still pending resolution by the court.

“Accused Tuason herein complies with the observation of this Honorable Court and reduces the duration of her stay in the USA from 22 March 2018 to 05 May 2018 to 22 March 2018 to 22 April 2018,” Manalo said in his motion.

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Tuason, who is a state witness in the "pork barrel" scam cases, is a co-accused of alleged scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles, former Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr., and former Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman in the P900-million Malampaya fund scam.

Manalo also provided the anti-graft court with details of Tuason’s trip, starting with a brief stay with her son Francis in Las Vegas, Nevada, supposedly from March 22 to March 28.

She then plans to stay with her niece in Los Angeles, California, while “waiting for her scheduled checkup, tests and possible operation" at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Hospital, supposedly from March 28 to April 18.

Tuason then plans to head back to her son’s house and stay there from April 18 to 20, and set her arrival date in Manila on April 22.

Manalo also provided the court with a letter from the Office of the Ombudsman dated March 13, 2018 granting Tuason's request to travel from March 15 to May 1, 2018.

The lawyer also said the opposition to her US trip registered by the prosecutors handling the Malampaya cases “appears to have been withdrawn.”

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