Arroyo fights suspension move

Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is now a Pampanga lawmaker, has contested Ombudsman prosecutors’ move to have her suspended from office because of her graft cases over the controversial national broadband network deal with China.

Arroyo, in her opposition filed through her lawyers, said her suspension would serve no purpose and that she did not deserve to be prevented from holding office because there is ground to question the validity of the charges against her.

Arroyo has been charged with two counts of graft and one count for breach of ethics in connection with her approval of the $329 NBN project with China’s ZTE Corporation, a deal that was later canceled amid allegations of bribery and overpricing.

The former president’s cases are pending before the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division.

In her opposition, she said the 90-day suspension that the prosecution is seeking would deprive her constituents in Pampanga’s second district of representation in Congress.

She said the acts involved in her cases were allegedly committed when she was the president, not when she was Pampanga representative. Thus, the actions involved were unrelated to her functions as a lawmaker.

She also said that the reasoning that the suspension would prevent a public officer from hampering the prosecution, intimidating witnesses or tampering with evidence hardly applies in her case.

No private affair

She pointed out that she is incarcerated and detained.

“The probability of the happening of the dangers sought to be prevented is next to nil,” she said.

“Furthermore, insofar as Rep. Macapagal-Arroyo is concerned, it is not anymore about her private interests, rather, to suspend her is to deprive the Second District of Pampanga representation in the House of Representatives,” she added.

Arroyo also said that to suspend public officers, there must be a valid information or charge sheet against them.

She said that just because she was arraigned does not mean that the information filed against her were valid. There must be a pre-suspension hearing held to determine the validity of the information to preventively suspend her, she added.

‘Questionable’

She also said the earlier resolutions of the Office of the Ombudsman, which had cleared her of any liability in the NBN transaction, had not been vacated and have become final.

The later Ombudsman resolution, which indicted Arroyo for graft and led to the filing of the charges, is questionable since it was based on the same set of facts under which she was cleared of liability, she added.