7 out of 10 Metro Manila folk want Arroyo charged in court

(Updated 9:35 p.m.) Seven out of 10 Filipinos in Metro Manila want former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was battered with a number of controversies during her nine-year term, charged in court by her successor President Benigno Aquino III. This was according to a survey of 400 voting respondents in eight cities in Metro Manila, conducted by the Makati-based polling firm StratPOLLS. The respondents came from Manila, Las Piñas, Makati, Caloocan, Quezon City, Pasig, Pasay and Valenzuela. Asked if they wanted the new administration to file charges against Arroyo and the officials who served under her, 69.5 percent of the respondents answered in the affirmative. Arroyo, now a member of the Lower House representing Pampanga’s 2nd district, no longer enjoys full immunity from criminal and civil suit as she did when she was President. Meanwhile, 30.5 percent said the ex-President and her camp “should be pardoned for the sake of promoting or attaining peace in the country." “Let us not jump to any early conclusion that the former president is outright guilty because our democratic institutions guarantee due process be accorded every citizen of the land suspected of any wrongdoing," said Prof. Alfredo Sureta Jr., executive director of StratPOLLS. Of the nearly 70 percent of the respondents who wanted Arroyo and her officials to be charged in court, 60 percent wanted them jailed while 36 percent only want them to return the money they allegedly stole. The remaining 4 percent wanted her exiled abroad. StratPOLLS stressed that the survey was done at the height of calls for Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez — a perceived Arroyo ally — to resign from her post amid allegations of a lackluster performance. Among the biggest controversies that rocked the Arroyo presidency were the "Hello, Garci?" mess, in which she allegedly cheated in the 2004 presidential elections; the $329-million ZTE-NBN deal; and the P728-million fertilizer scam, wherein agricultural funds were allegedly diverted to her 2004 presidential campaign fund. Despite the survey results, Sureta doubted that the former president would even end up being tried in court in the near future. "This would take a very long process that could even occupy the whole six-year term of the Aquino government and that, at the end of it all, Arroyo could softly walk into the sunset, scot-free," Sureta said. Sureta cited the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos as an example of how cases against a president could drag for "almost a lifetime" since cases against him and his family remain pending before the Presidential Commission on Good Governance, specifically formed to recover the Marcoses' ill-gotten wealth. The previous 1973 Constitution, under which Marcos ruled the country for 13 years, gave a president immunity from suit even after his or her term ends. Drafters of the present 1987 Constitution scrapped this provision. Under the present Charter, a president can only enjoy immunity as long as she sits as president, which means that Arroyo lost hers when she stepped down on June 30 to be succeeded by Aquino. As an incoming member of Congress, Arroyo is still constitutionally accorded with parliamentary immunity although with a more limited coverage than presidential immunity. This limited parliamentary immunity only applies to cases that are punishable by less than six years. StratPOLLS, INC. was founded by several individuals perceived to enjoy close ties with Arroyo's husband, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. It was formed in 2009 and is a sister company of media firms like the national daily Business Mirror, Philippines Graphic magazine, and radio stations DWIZ and Home Radio FM.—JV, GMANews.TV