Mike Arroyo’s defense: Marital function
What could he possibly have done? He was just there as the umbrella-toting husband.
Lawyer Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo did play golf with his wife, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in China prior to the signing of the controversial $329-million NBN-ZTE deal in 2007, but only because it was part of his “marital function.”
This was one of the arguments put up by the former first gentleman in reply to the findings of the Office of the Ombudsman that he conspired with his wife and two other officials to ensure the approval of what turned out to be a scandal-tainted deal, an act that purportedly made him liable for graft.
Mike Arroyo asked the antigraft body to reconsider the charges it filed against him last month in the Sandiganbayan for alleged violation of Section 3 (g) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
A mere companion
In a motion for reconsideration filed on Tuesday, Mike Arroyo argued through counsel that, as a private individual tagged as a conspirator, he could not be held liable under this provision of the law because he was “neither a contracting party nor a representative of one.”
He said he merely accompanied his wife to a game of golf and later to a lunch in Shenzhen, China, at the invitation of ZTE officials.
He only played golf with his wife, businessman Jose “Joey” de Venecia III and then Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos, he recalled.
He maintained that no ZTE official was around during that game, photos of which were leaked to the Inquirer, one of them showing Mike Arroyo holding up an umbrella for his wife in the fairway.
According to the motion, “(Arroyo’s) presence at the luncheon was a marital function of the First Gentleman to be supportive of his wife. It does not prove any conspiracy in the approval of the ZTE contract especially considering the fact that the ZTE contract was an executive agreement and it was the Chinese government which had chosen ZTE to implement the project.”
In August 2009, the Office of the Ombudsman then under Merceditas Gutierrez dropped the graft charges against then President Arroyo, citing her immunity from suit. Gutierrez also dismissed the charge against Mike Arroyo, citing lack of evidence against him.
But Gutierrez recommended the filing of graft charges against Abalos and former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri.
Under pressure from the Aquino administration, Gutierrez was forced to step down in May 2011 just before her impeachment trial was to start at the Senate.
‘Unusual interest’
Reviving the charges against the Arroyo couple in December last year, the antigraft body now headed by Conchita Carpio Morales said Mike Arroyo showed “unusual interest” in the deal by playing golf and having lunch with ZTE officials.
This active intervention “made him a conspirator in the approval” of the deal, Morales added.
Named as respondents in the revived charges were the Arroyo couple, Abalos and former Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza. Gloria Arroyo was also charged with another count of graft and one count of violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials.
The Sandiganbayan allowed the respondents to file motions for reconsideration with the Ombudsman.
The NBN-ZTE contract was signed by Mendoza and ZTE vice president Yu Yong on April 21, 2007, in Boao, China, in ceremonies witnessed by then President Arroyo herself.
The project, which was meant to connect government offices nationwide through landline, cellular and Internet services, was eventually canceled amid allegations of gross overpricing and bribery.
Gov’t to gov’t transaction
In his motion, Mike Arroyo maintained there was no proof that he overtly contributed to a conspiracy, and dismissed suggestions linking him to what he called a “government-to-government transaction.”
He reiterated that the deal was covered by an executive agreement and not subject to the country’s procurement act.
“The ZTE transaction being a government-to-government transaction, the allegation that respondent Jose Miguel Arroyo influenced the approval of the deal by merely joining a luncheon with executives of ZTE crumbles to the ground,” said the motion prepared by the Herrera Batacan & Associates law firm.
No ‘back-off’ scene
And contrary to the complaint, Mike Arroyo did not initiate any reconciliatory meeting between De Venecia and Abalos who had wrangled over the deal, the motion added.
De Venecia, whose company was bypassed in the bidding, later turned whistle-blower against Mike Arroyo and Abalos in a Senate investigation.
“It is not therefore difficult to see the incredibility of De Venecia’s allegation that respondent Mike Arroyo told him to ‘back off’ from the NBN project. Certainly a charge for conspiracy could not be supported by a statement, the falsity of which is exposed by the witness himself,” the motion said.
Mike Arroyo also argued that the contract could not have been disadvantageous to the government since it was scrapped in October 2007.
“With (its) abrogation, any theory on whether or not the contract is grossly disadvantageous to the government would be speculative and could not meet even the quantum of evidence to support a finding of probable cause,” his motion said.
Mike Arroyo also said the Ombudsman’s earlier dismissal—under Gutierrez’s term—of the criminal complaint against him should preclude the “relitigation” of the same issues that had already been resolved, in accordance with the rule of res judicata (case already settled).
