Even with shingles, Gloria Arroyo pushes through with her arraignment

MANILA, Philippines—Even with shingles, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo opted to push through with her arraignment on the graft case involving the botched ZTE-NBN deal where she pleaded not guilty.

Lawyer Jose Flaminiano said Mrs. Arroyo is not feeling well she is resigned to the fact that she has this case. “We have to defend her to the best of our abilities,” he said.

Mrs. Arroyo arrived at the Sandiganbayan wearing her favorite marian blue dress and in neck braces. She shook hands with her co-accused, former Commission on Elections chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. and had a small talk.

She also warned the media that they could get chicken pox.

She said while in Veterans Memorial Medical Center, she regularly attends mass and observes the 3’o clock habit. However, she stopped since Friday when she started feeling the symptoms of shingles.

Shingles is a skin rash that appears when the virus that causes chicken pox starts up again in your body. It usually appears to adults who have weak immune system due to injury, stress or taking certain medications.

“The pain is severe. It is like a very, very bad flu,” Mrs. Arroyo told reporters while waiting for her, her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo’s and Abalos’ arraignment. All three pleaded not guilty.

She said she is writing her memoir.

“I am writing more than reading. I am writing my memoirs. I am writing about social balance, housing, the economy,” Arroyo said.

Rep. Arroyo opted to waive the reading of the case against her to make the arraignment quicker and because she is not feeling well but the court insisted that the information be read to her in open court before entering her plea.

“It can be waived, that is allowed but the court did not. Anyway, it is their discretion,” Flaminiano said. Flaminiano, together with Mrs. Arroyo’s legal spokesman Atty. Raul Lambino said they believe that Arroyo will soon be vindicated because the evidence against her is not strong enough.

“We know that she will be vindicated soon. We are banking on the judicial system and the family keeping their faith in God,” Lambino said.

After the arraignment, Rep. Arroyo went out of the Sandiganbayan in a wheelchair.

The pre-trial is set on June 4 while the arraignment of their co-accused former Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza is set on May 14. Mendoza is still confined at the St. Lukes Global Center after suffering a mild stroke last March.

This is the second criminal case filed against Mrs. Arroyo, the first was the electoral sabotage pending before the Pasay City Regional Trial Court where she already pleaded not guilty.

Arroyo is facing two counts for violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and a violation of Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

Her co-accused, husband, lawyer Jose Miguel Arroyo, former Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos and former DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza are facing one count of graft each.

The Sandiganbayan Fourth Division is handling a separate graft case against Abalos also involving NBN-ZTE deal which has already started hearing the case as early as 2010.

The case stemmed from the complaint filed by Bayan Muna mainly based on records of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee investigation into the NBN deal.

During the Senate hearing in 2008 of ZTE consultant Dante Madriaga, the deal was originally priced at $130 million, but that the cost ballooned to accommodate the kickbacks.

Former Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri had testified that Abalos offered him a bribe to approve the contract, and another witness, Jose de Venecia III, said the ex-president’s husband was promised a $70 million commission.

Arroyo is accused of violating Republic Act 3019 section 3 (g) and (i) and Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

Section 3 (g) considers unlawful the “entering, on behalf of the government, into any contract or transaction manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to the same, whether or not the public officer profited or will profit thereby.”

Section 3 (i), meanwhile, considers a practice corrupt when it the official is “directly or indirectly becoming interested, for personal gain, or having a material interest in any transaction or act requiring the approval of a board, panel or group of which he is a member, and which exercises discretion in such approval, even if he votes against the same or does not participate in the action of the board, committee, panel or group.”

The same provision states that “interest for personal gain shall be presumed against those public officers responsible for the approval of manifestly unlawful, inequitable, or irregular transaction or acts by the board, panel or group to which they belong.”

The NBN contract called for the installation of a telecommunications network linking government offices throughout the country.

In September 2007, Jose de Venecia III, son of the then Speaker of the House and cofounder of Amsterdam Holdings Inc., which lost in the bidding for the NBN contract, testified before the Senate that then Mike Arroyo intervened to have the deal go to ZTE.