Arroyo pleads not guilty 3 times to NBN-ZTE graft raps

former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Defying  doctors’ advice not to go out because she had shingles, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo faced the Sandiganbayan on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to corruption charges related to an overpriced deal with a Chinese telecommunications company in a second criminal case against her.

Arroyo was arrested last year on a separate charge of electoral fraud and has been since indicted in connection with a $329-million government contract with Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE Corp.

Her husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, and former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair Benjamin Abalos also pleaded not guilty to corruption charges in the ZTE case involving National Broadband Network (NBN).

The former President pleaded not guilty three times, as she faced a second graft charge and another charge for breach of ethics for approving the NBN-ZTE contract, which the Office of the Ombudsman had found to be disadvantageous to the government.

Abalos posted P30,000 bail, which does not allow him to go free because he has already been detained while undergoing trial on nonbailable charges of electoral sabotage in Pasay City Regional Trial Court. He is held in a police jail in Taguig City.

Mike Arroyo posted bail at the antigraft court last month to avoid detention.

Less than half an hour

The arraignment of Arroyo and her coaccused before the Fourth Division of the Sandiganbayan was over in less than half an hour. It may have been shorter had the court granted the motion of her lawyer Jose Flaminiano not to read the information or charges against Arroyo anymore before she entered her plea.

But the court denied Flaminiano’s motion and directed that the three charges be read.

Flanked by their lawyers, Arroyo first stood with Mike and Abalos before the justices as the first charge was read. After pleading not guilty, Mike and Abalos sat down and then the two other charges against Arroyo were read.

With the arraignment finished, the charges can now go to trial. The court set the pretrial on June 4.

The lawyers of Arroyo and Abalos, on being asked by Fourth Division chairman Justice Gregory Ong, also said their clients would submit waivers of appearance so they would not have to appear in court every time there was a hearing.

Tight security

Ong had noted that a lot of preparations had to be done for the appearance of Arroyo in court Wednesday.

Tight security was implemented at the Sandiganbayan  for the arraignment. As early as 6 a.m., police officers and bomb-sniffing dogs were roving in the compound. The number of journalists allowed inside the courtroom was also limited.

In filing the criminal charges against Arroyo in December, the Office of the Ombudsman said the former President fast-tracked and approved the signing of the NBN deal with ZTE Corp. in 2007 despite knowing it had irregularities. Arroyo later canceled the project amid allegations of bribery and overpricing.

The Ombudsman said the deal was entered into with indecent haste and was disadvantageous to the government.

Arroyo was also charged with breach of ethics for playing golf and having lunch with ZTE officials while the company’s proposal to build the NBN was being evaluated by the Philippine government.

Mike Arroyo, on the other hand, was found to have an unusual interest in the deal, while former Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza was charged for signing the contract.

Abalos was indicted for various acts leading to the signing of the deal, including his meeting with former National and Economic and Development Authority chief Romulo Neri and Neri’s consultant Rodolfo Lozada in connection with the project.

Also accused of corruption in the NBN-ZTE case, Mendoza will be arraigned on May 14, as he is still recovering from a stroke he suffered last month.

Police escorted Arroyo to the Sandiganbayan from the state-run Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC), where she has been detained on the electoral sabotage charge, for which she cannot post bail, while undergoing treatment for a spinal ailment.

A Senate probe found the 2007 contract overpriced and ridden with problems, including allegations that Mike Arroyo accepted bribes to push through the contract with his wife’s approval.

Under public pressure, Arroyo canceled the deal the same year. She left office in 2010 and faced wide-ranging prosecution as part of a promise by her popular successor, President Benigno Aquino III, to uproot corruption.

Arroyo, in a matching light blue blazer and skirt, strode into the courtroom with Mike at her side about 20 minutes before the arraignment started.

Also in court were Arroyo’s son, party-list Representative Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, her doctors, and spokespersons Elena Bautista-Horn and Raul Lambino.

The former President wore a neck brace and Kinesio tape wrapped around her left leg, which was used for her therapy.

She gamely chatted with reporters inside the courtroom, telling them she had shingles and warning they may get chicken pox if they were exposed to her.

Contagious

Shingles, or herpes zoster, is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox. Those who have it usually get rashes, though no visible ones could be seen on Arroyo on Wednesday.

“I hope you’ve all had chicken pox. I have the shingles now. It’s contagious but you will not get shingles, you will get chicken pox,” she told reporters.

She said the pain was severe. “It’s like a very, very bad case of flu,” she said.

She said she felt the symptoms on Friday. She first had a backache, and then her doctors saw blisters on her back.

Ex-President’s day

Arroyo said her doctors advised her on Tuesday not to go out, but she said she did not want to postpone her arraignment any longer.

Arroyo also talked to reporters about her routine inside the VMMC. She said she hears Mass at 7 a.m., and then takes her morning walk. She has physical therapy at 10:30 a.m., and starts to receive visitors at 3 p.m. Her diet is strict, she said. For instance, she can’t have soda, alcohol and raw fish.

She said she was writing more than reading, and was busy with her memoirs. She was also writing about social bias, housing, as well as how her administration managed to keep the price of gas from rising too high despite the fact that world prices then were higher than they are now.

Case is moving

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Arroyo’s arraignment was “a very good development.” It means the case is “moving and in due time, we will know the [decision],” she said in a talk with reporters yesterday.

In Malacañang, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte urged the public to follow closely the trial of Arroyo and her coaccused like the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“The Sandiganbayan now has jurisdiction over [Arroyo],” Valte said. “We hope our people will continue to monitor the developments [in] the case with interest.”

Mike Arroyo told reporters that he had confidence in the justices handling the graft cases, as they had integrity. He said he believed they would not bow to any pressure.  With reports from Norman Bordadora, Marlon Ramos and AP