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Palace readying 'at least 20 cases' against Gloria Arroyo


(Updated 12:11 a.m., Nov. 22) Apart from electoral sabotage charges, former President and current Pampanga Second District Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo should expect around 20 cases filed against her, including plunder which is also a non-bailable offense when evidence of guilt is strong, Malacañang said Monday. In a report from GMA News' "24 Oras," Office of Political Affairs Secretary Ronald Llamas said, “Alam ko kasi merong almost 20 na hinahanda na mga cases, plunder, electoral sabotage, et cetera. So, sa tingin ko in the next few days or weeks ay baka ‘yung mga kaso na yan, ay magsimula nang isampa ang mga yan." The Palace appears to be making good on the promise President Benigno Aquino III made last Sept. 28 that cases would be filed one after the other against Arroyo by November. Also on Monday, Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño, former congresswoman Liza Maza and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) chairperson Carol Araullo filed an urgent motion to resolve the complaint they filed against Mrs. Arroyo last September, and to immediately file a plunder case against her in relation to the allegedly anomalous national broadband deal (NBN) her administration entered into with the Chinese firm ZTE Corp. in 2007.
Arroyo was arrested last Friday for electoral sabotage, which carries a life sentence, at the St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig, Metro Manila. Over the weekend, Aquino assured Arroyo that she would be given the chance to defend herself in court over charges of electoral sabotage. But Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago warned on Monday that “a movement within Malacañang that is following blind vengeance against Rep. Arroyo" is “putting President Aquino in legal peril." She told reporters that, “There is political persecution, there is no due process of law, and there is inherent bad faith in the timing of filing of the case in the regular RTC and consequent issuance of a warrant of arrest." Last Sunday, former Justice secretary Raul Gonzalez accused the Pasay City Regional Trial Court of abuse of power for ordering the arrest of the former President. Then on Monday, the former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike" Arroyo’s counsel, Ferdinand Topacio, accused the Commission on Elections (Comelec) of violating its own rules when it approved charging Mrs. Arroyo with electoral sabotage. Mike Arroyo also petitioned the Supreme Court to nullify the electoral sabotage case filed against his wife, and asked the high court to immediately issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop the DOJ and the Comelec from further conducting the investigation. Comelec did not rush the case But earlier in a Monday morning interview on GMA News TV’s “News To Go", Comelec spokesman James Jimenez stressed that the poll body did not rush filing the case just to prevent Arroyo from leaving the country. He explained that a “confluence of events" or “serendipity" led to the joint panel finishing its investigation just in time to stop the former Philippine leader from fleeing. Last Friday, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and Solicitor General Joel Cadiz shared the same opinion that the filing of formal charges with a Pasay court against Arroyo might render “moot" the Supreme Court’s issuance of a temporary restraining order in connection with the travel ban on the former President and her husband. De Lima also denied that the issuance of the warrant of arrest was rushed despite the fact that what the government had been asking for was just a hold-departure order. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on the petition filed by Mike Arroyo and former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos assailing the legality of the Joint Comelec-DOJ panel which investigated the alleged electoral fraud committed in the 2007 elections. Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento pointed out that even if the high court declares the composition of the joint panel as illegal, such a ruling would not affect the effectivity of the warrant issued for Mrs. Arroyo’s arrest, much less the electoral sabotage case filed against her. “We have the sinumpaang salaysay [or] affidavits submitted by the witnesses, so that the Comelec or anybody that will investigate will have something to start with so efforts will not be fruitless," Sarmiento told GMA News reporter Chino Gaston on Monday. Senator Lacson in a separate interview with GMA News reporter Tricia Zafra agreed with the polls commissioner’s view, saying there is nothing to prevent the Comelec from carrying on with the prosecution of the case and using the evidence gathered. — With reports from Kimberly Tan, Andreo Calonzo/ MRT/VS/KG, GMA News

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