MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday said it junked former Optical Media Board (OMB) chair Ronnie Ricketts’ petition to dismiss the graft charges against him.

In a 14-page resolution dated November 2021, the court dismissed Ricketts’ petition for certiorari, citing “lack of merit.”

The charges stemmed from his failure to file complaints against those arrested for possession of pirated DVDs and VCDs during a 2010 raid in Quiapo, Manila, as well as returning the said pirated materials to their manufacturer.

During the raid, OMB agents seized 127 boxes and 2 sacks of pirated DVDs and VCDs and a video recording unit at an establishment along Carlos Palanca Street. Three Chinese nationals were also arrested.

“The confiscated materials were brought to the OMB office but, later, and purportedly upon the instruction of Ricketts, 121 of the 127 boxes of the pirated materials were hauled out of the OMB premises and loaded into an Isuzu truck marked 'Sky High Marketing.' No charges were filed by the OMB against any person or entity after,” the court said.

In July 2019, the Office of the Ombudsman filed a complaint against Ricketts before the Sandiganbayan, after the actor allegedly allowed the return of the confiscated DVDs and VCDs to their manufacturer, Sky High Marketing Corp.

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“In dismissing the petition, the Court ruled that there was nothing from the instant petition that would validate Ricketts’ claim that the Sandiganbayan gravely abused its discretion or acted beyond its jurisdiction in denying his motion and the demurrer itself,” the SC said in a statement.

“It stressed that there was no showing that the Sandiganbayan’s finding on the sufficiency of the evidence of the prosecution was made without legal or evidentiary basis, or that the same was reached in a capricious or whimsical exercise of judgment that could warrant the issuance of the extraordinary writ of certiorari.”

The Court further ruled that the petitioner’s allegations rest on the admissibility and credibility of the evidence presented by the prosecution, as well as the examination and appreciation of such evidence by the Sandiganbayan, which matters clearly pertain to alleged errors in judgment which are beyond the scope of certiorari, it also said.

Ricketts was sentenced to 6 to 8 years in jail and perpetually barred him from holding public office.

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