WEAK EVIDENCE: GLORIA ARROYO RELEASED ON P1-M
BAIL, RETURNS HOME
[PHOTO -Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
waves to supporters after being released from 'hospital arrest' at the Veterans
Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City yesterday. At left, an employee of the
Pasay City Sheriff's Office counts part of Arroyo's P1-million bail. BOY SANTOS/MANNY MARCELO]
MANILA, JULY
27, 2012 (PHILSTAR) Former President and now
Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo waved at her cheering supporters as she
arrived at the La Vista Subdivision in Quezon City, hours after she was ordered
released from hospital detention on Wednesday afternoon.
Mrs. Arroyo was released from her detention room at the Veterans Memorial
Medical Center (VMMC) after a Pasay City court judge allowed her to post a P1
million bail in connection with her electoral sabotage case.
The convoy of the former president, escorted by policemen and followed by
several media vehicles, entered the La Vista Subdivision shortly before 3:30
p.m.
"Nagpapasalamat kami at nakauwi na rin siya. Siyempre ang katarungan ay
nananaig pa rin sa ating bayan. Hindi naman talaga malakas ang kanilang
ebidensya kaya naman po nakapagpiyansa ang dating pangulo," said Elena
Bautista-Horn, spokesperson of the former president.
Horn said that the former president was very excited to return to her home
province of Pampanga.
She said that the former president's lawyer are also preparing for her
defense on the plunder case filed against her by the government regarding the
alleged misuse of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office's intelligence fund
during her administration.
Despite the release order, Mrs. Arroyo cannot leave the country because of a
pending hold-departure order issued against her in connection with the plunder
case filed by the Office of the Ombudsman before the Sandiganbayan, which has
yet to issue an arrest order against the former president.
Angry mob
Shortly before 3 p.m., the convoy slipped past a mob of angry protesters
through the Gate 2 of the VMMC, where the former president spent the last seven
months in detention.
A large group of protesters tried to block the convoy as it was making its
way out of the VMMC. An orange pickup truck was even used by the protesters to
block the convoy.
Mrs. Arroyo was ordered arrested in December last year on charges of
electoral sabotage in connection with the alleged massive cheating during the
2007 mid-term elections.
Earlier, Mrs. Arroyo came out of the VMMC's presidential suite while holding
a young boy, probably one of her grandchildren. She was then escorted to a
waiting white coaster and went for a brief prayer at the government hospital's
chapel.
Before the former president left the presidential suite, lawyer Ferdinand
Topacio announced in his Twitter account that the former president has been
"officially released." Topacio was at the VMMC witnessing the serving of the
release order issued by Pasay City Regional Trial Court Branch 112 Judge Jesus
Mupas.
"CGMA officially released. Everyone singing 'Please release me, let me go,"
Topacio announced in his Twitter account @FerdieTopacio.
He also announced that Mrs. Arroyo will be transferred to her home at the La
Vista Subdivision in Quezon City, where she will join former first gentleman
Jose Miguel Arroyo.
Mrs. Arroyo was ordered released after posting a P1 million cash bond at the
Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC).
After the posting of the cash bond, Mupas signed the release order for the
former president.
From the Pasay RTC, Court Sheriff Rodelio Buenviaje went to the Philippine
National Police's national headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City, to serve the
release order to Chief Superintendent Wilhelm Barles.
Shortly before 2 p.m., Buenviaje was already back at the VMMC to serve the
release order.
The order was also addressed to Dr. Nona Legaspi, director of the VMMC.
"You are hereby directed to discharge from custody the person of Cong. Gloria
Macapagal ARroyo," the order stated.
Mrs. Arroyo's lawyer posted the cash bond after Mupas sign a resolution on
Tuesday, granting the former president's petition for bail.
Weak case
Court spokesperson Celda Domingo said that Mupas granted the bail petition
after finding that there were no strong evidence presented by the Commission on
Elections (Comelec) that would prove Arroyo's direct involvement in the massive
cheating during the 2007 elections.
"The evidence against GMA (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) is not as strong as
[those presented against] Bedol and Ampatuan," Domingo said in media briefing
after the court issued the omnibus order on the case.
The former president was ordered arrested and detained at the VMMC in
December last year. She was charged with electoral sabotage in connection with
the alleged massive cheating in the 2007 elections.
Domingo, meanwhile, said that the bail petitions of former Maguindanao
governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and former election supervisor Lintang Bedol were
denied because they were directly implicated by prosecution witness Norie Unas
in the alleged rigging of the 2007 elections.
Domingo said the Comelec lawyers handling the case can file a motion for
reconsideration on the decision.
Several groups trooped to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City
where former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when they heard the news of the
Pasay City granting her to post a P1 million bail for the electoral sabotage
case.
Members of the militant group Bayan gathered in one of the gates of the VMMC
to protest the granting of bail to Mrs. Arroyo.
Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes Jr. said that aside from the electoral
sabotage case, the government seems to have been filing weak cases against the
former president.
FROM INQUIRER
Thank God, says Arroyo now out on bail By Cathy C.
Yamsuan, Christian V. Esguerra, Niña Calleja Philippine Daily Inquirer 12:13 am
| Thursday, July 26th, 2012
[PHOTO - FEELING FANCY FREE Former President and now Pampanga Rep.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo waves to her supporters outside the gate of La Vista
subdivision in Quezon City, where she lives. A Pasay City judge has allowed her
to post a P1-million bail for her temporary release in connection with the
electoral sabotage case filed against her. JOAN
BONDOC]
MANILA - She walked free from eight months in detention on Wednesday after a
court granted her bail on the ground that the electoral sabotage case against
her was weak. But her freedom may be short-lived.
"Thank God," former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, 65, said before exchanging embraces with a small group of
relatives and friends gathered in her room at Veterans Memorial Medical Center
(VMMC) in Quezon City.
That's vintage Gloria Arroyo, one who kept strong when others showed
weakness, her only daughter Lourdes "Luli" Arroyo-Bernas said.
Several senators, however, said Arroyo could be detained anew sooner than
expected for the nonbailable charge of plunder that was filed earlier this month
in connection with the misuse of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO)
intelligence funds.
"Once the Sandiganbayan issues another warrant of arrest in relation to the
plunder case, she will go back to prison," said Senator Francis Escudero,
chairman of the justice committee.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada joked that Arroyo should
have left behind her clothes at VMMC.
"She might be back very soon," said Estrada, who himself once faced a plunder
case but was later acquitted in connection with the jueteng funds pocketed by
his father, former President Joseph Estrada.
Senator Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the blue ribbon committee, said
the evidence gathered by his panel during its hearings on the P366 million in
PCSO funds that went missing during Arroyo's incumbency "is very strong."
Setback for Palace
"We must remember that she has never denied her participation in the approval
(of the release) of huge amounts of money. Her marginal notes of approval are on
record, clearly affirmed and testified to by Rosario Uriarte, former general
manager of the PCSO," Guingona said.
Administration senators, who took part in the investigation, later insinuated
that the PCSO intelligence funds were used to finance the campaign of
Lakas-Kampi candidates in the 2010 presidential elections.
The granting of bail represented a major setback for President Benigno
Aquino, who had said that bringing his predecessor to justice for crimes she
allegedly committed while in power was crucial to his high-profile antigraft
campaign.
Arroyo's spokesperson, Ferdinand Topacio, described the ruling by the Pasay
Regional Trial Court as "a triumph of justice and a resounding denial of
dictatorship" that proved her earlier assertions of innocence.
"It is a reaffirmation of what our camp has been saying all along," Topacio
said, before borrowing from a quote by the late US President Abraham Lincoln.
"That the charges against the former President are as thin as the soup made from
boiling the shadow of a chicken that had been starved to death."
Arroyo was arrested at St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig City in November
last year shortly after immigration authorities prevented her at the Ninoy
Aquino International Airport from leaving the country.
Mr. Aquino said Arroyo was trying to flee to escape imminent charges against
her, although she said she needed specialist treatment overseas for her spinal
ailment.
Arroyo was charged shortly after with "electoral sabotage" for allegedly
conspiring with a feared political warlord to rig the 2007 senatorial elections.
She was transferred to VMMC, where she had been detained while awaiting
trial. No date has yet been set for the start of the trial, which could take
years to complete.
P1-million bail
The Pasay City RTC, which is hearing the case, said on Wednesday that the
case against Arroyo was weak, and that she should be released on a P1-million
bail.
However, the court said she could not leave the country and would still stand
trial for the offense.
"The court believes that the prosecution failed to establish with the
required quantum of proof that conspiracy exists on the part of accused Arroyo,"
said Judge Jesus Mupas of Pasay City RTC Branch 112.
Mupas said the credibility of a former Maguindanao provincial administrator,
Norie Unas, the only witness to implicate Arroyo in the case, was "tainted with
doubt."
Unas testified that he had overheard then President Arroyo order a coaccused,
then Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., to ensure the victory of the
administration's senatorial candidates.
Others accused of electoral fraud were Election Supervisor Lintang Bedol and
former Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos.
At a press briefing, Pasay City RTC spokesperson Felda Domingo said that
after a careful examination "the court doubted Unas' testimony," which was the
only evidence linking Arroyo to the case.
"It is not sufficient for us to render a resolution against her petition for
bail," Domingo said.
Bundles of P1,000 bills
Shortly before 10 a.m., two of Arroyo's lawyers brought to court 10 bundles
of P1,000 bills amounting to P1 million.
It took an hour for the Office of the Clerk of Court employees to count and
check the bills before a receipt of the cash bond was forwarded to the RTC
branch.
Arroyo was not exactly jubilant when told that she could leave her hospital
suite where she had been under arrest since December last year.
"I was the one who was emotional because whenever she saw that her family was
emotional, she's the one who remained strong. That's what happened," Arroyo's
daughter Luli told GMANewsTV.
"I cried even if I wasn't the one who was supposed to cry. I hugged her
tightly…. I couldn't believe that she now has a chance to defend herself," she
said.
She said the past months had not been easy. "We placed ourselves under the
process of the law, knowing that so long as it is followed, we can show that she
is innocent."
Prayed over
Before her release, Arroyo was prayed over by Bishop Efraim Tendero, one of
her spiritual advisers who read her the Scriptures. The message was not
unrelated to her temporary victory: the Lord will "never leave thee, nor forsake
thee."
Also in the hospital suite at that time were Luli, her month-old son Juan
Alvaro, and her uncle Art Macapagal. More guests poured in especially after the
release order was finally served.
But Tendero, national director of the Philippine Council of Evangelical
Churches, said the mood was more of surprise than festive.
"They couldn't believe that the petition (for bail) was granted and that she
could now leave," he recalled in a phone interview with the Philippine Daily
Inquirer.
Topacio tweeted about the arrival of Arroyo's eldest son, Representative Juan
Miguel Arroyo, and later, the sheriff who was to serve the release order.
The lawyer also reported the arrival of Representative Girlie Villarosa, a
close confidante of Arroyo, saying Villarosa was "demolishing chocolate cake."
Visibly thin
Tendero said Arroyo considerably lost weight, visibly thin in her dark gray
dress. Luli said her mother now weighed less than 100 pounds.
"We really want her to rest first," the daughter said, shortly before
accompanying her mother back to the family residence at La Vista subdivision in
Quezon City.
Once she's fit, Arroyo could attend the budget hearings set next month, said
House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez.
Vice President Jejomar Binay expressed confidence that the administration
would again take steps against Arroyo.
"I am certain that the government will exhaust all legal options. Let's wait
for developments," Binay said in a statement.
When he was mayor, Binay led multisectoral protests against Arroyo in his
turf in Makati City and called for her ouster amid allegations that she was
involved in rigging the 2004 presidential election. With
reports from Tarra Quismundo and AFP
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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rights reserved
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