Belmonte: Go easy on cases vs Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Monday said that filing too many plunder cases against former President now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo could work in her favor.

“That strategy is bad,” said Belmonte in an interview with reporters after he adjourned the morning session of the House of Representatives.

Belmonte was referring to the plunder charges to be filed today (Tuesday) by Akbayan party-list Representatives Walden Bello and Kaka Bag-ao, two weeks after Bayan Muna party-list Representatives Teodoro Casiño and Neri Colmenares trooped to the Office of the Ombudsman to file their own case against Arroyo.

Belmonte concurred with some pundits’ view that too many plunder charges filed against Arroyo could jeopardize rather than complement the cases.

Belmonte said the House was unlikely to undertake an ethics probe of Arroyo because the alleged election fraud and graft were committed during her presidency and not her current term as Pampanga representative.

“I don’t think it’s proper to file [charges] in the House. They should be filed in the proper agency [that has] the time and facilities. The House is not the proper place,” he said.

Arroyo’s lawyer, Raul Lambino, said Akbayan and Bayan Muna were “trying to outdo each other by engaging in bizarre political stunts and gimmickry at the expense of the former president.”