Sandiganbayan: Arroyo has right not to testify in Neri's trial

The Sandiganbayan has ruled that former President and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may not be compelled to testify in the graft trial of former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri. A four-page resolution of Associate Justices Napoleon Inoturan, Alex Quiroz and Roland Jurado, division chairman, upheld Arroyo's right not to testify in Neri's trial concerning the scrapped $329 million NBN-ZTE deal. Arroyo, through her counsel, Estelito Mendoza, filed a Motion to Quash, arguing that has the right to remain silent as she is a respondent in two pending investigations involving the same transaction. One was filed by University of the Philippines Law professor Harry Roque before the Office of the Ombudsman and the other was filed only by Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño at the Department of Justice. “It is clear that the movant (Arroyo) is being investigated on matters related to the NBN-ZTE deal. There is no question that movant is being accused of having committed illegal acts in connection with the NBN-ZTE deal, and that these illegal acts are subject of investigation in different venues," the graft court declared. Wherefore, for being meritorious, the ‘Motion to Quash Subpoena Issued on Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’ dated October 7, 2010 is hereby granted," the court added. Prosecutors wanted Arroyo to explain the extent of Neri’s involvement in the negotiation for the NBN-ZTE project. Neri, former director general of the National Economic Development Authority, was accused of having unlawful interests in the contract. He is also being questioned for allowing Philippines Forests Corporation president Rodolfo ‘Jun’ Lozada to act as his representative in the negotiations for the NBN project with Chinese firm Zhing Ying Telecommunications Equipment (ZTE). The prosecution team claimed that Arroyo may be summoned as an ‘ordinary witness’ because she is not a defendant in the case. They said she may decline to answer certain questions that feels could incriminate her. They likewise gave assurances that the questions would be limited to Arroyo's stint as chairman of the NEDA Board during the negotiations for the NBN-ZTE project. However, the court overruled the prosecutors’ stand, noting that Arroyo’s right to keep her silence is enshrined in the Constitution under Article III, Section 12 (1). “As aptly asserted by movant, through counsel, in her memorandum, to which the Court agrees, …‘There is no question that movant Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is, for all intents and purposes, an “accused" person, accused of illegal acts in connection with the NBN-ZTE deal. Her right to remain silent, in any venue, is absolute, and this cannot be taken against her…," the graft court said. National broadband controversy The Philippine National Broadband Network controversy (also known as the NBN/ZTE deal) involved allegations of corruption in the awarding of a US$329 million construction contract to Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE for the proposed government-managed National Broadband Network (NBN). The contract with ZTE was signed on April 20, 2007 in Hainan, China. After accusations of irregularities surfaced, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo cancelled the National Broadband Network (NBN) project in October 2007. On July 14, 2008, the Supreme Court dismissed all three petitions questioning the constitutionality of the national broadband deal, saying the petitions became moot when Arroyo cancelled the project. –VVP, GMANews.TV