MANILA, Philippines - Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) administrator Nereus Acosta has started serving a 90-day preventive suspension that the Sandiganbayan imposed on him for a graft case.

Acosta, who is also Presidential adviser on environmental protection, is accused of misusing P10.5 million from his pork barrel when he was congressman of Bukidnon.

He informed President Benigno Aquino that he is complying with the Sandiganbayan order.

"In the interest of the service, and in order not to further burden the Office of the President, I am voluntarily complying with and submitting myself to the said Order of the Honorable Sandiganbayan and consider myself preventively suspended for ninety days effective as of the close of business hours today," he said in a letter dated February 7, 2012.

Acosta earlier opposed the suspension, claiming he is outside the Sandiganbayan's authority because he was appointed by the President.

The Sandiganbayan rejected his stand, saying the preventive suspension of a public official charged under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act is mandatory.

Acosta, ran and lost under Aquino's senatorial ticket in the 2010 elections.

He has been indicted on 3 counts of graft. His mother, Socorro Acosta, faces 2 counts of graft while his aunt, Ma. Nemia Bornidor, is a co-defendant in a single graft charge.

Acosta was sued by anti-corruption group Bukidnon Crusade Against Graft and Corruption for allegedly using his pork barrel funds to give a P2.5-million solar tunnel dryer to the municipal government of Manolo Fortich in 2001 when his mother, Socorro, was still mayor.

Another P2.5 million was reportedly also transferred to the Bukidnon Integrated Network of Home Industries (BINHI) Inc., a private cooperative, and P5.5 million to Bukidnon Vegetable Producers Cooperative (BVPC), also a private entity. Mayor Acosta was supposedly a member and director of BVPC while Acosta's aunt, Bornidor, was a member of the board of BINHI.