Exasperated, Sandiganbayan tells Arroyo to take bail plea to SC

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Sick of hearing former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s incessant pleas for bail on health grounds, the Sandiganbayan on Thursday urged her lawyer to try their luck in the Supreme Court.

Associate Justice Rafael R. Lagos, Sandiganbayan First Division chair, told Arroyo’s lawyer, Modesto Ticman Jr., to try appealing to the high tribunal after being rejected a fourth time by the antigraft court—a move that her coaccused in the alleged plunder of P360 million in Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office funds, former PCSO assistant general manager Benigno Aguas, took after being frustrated in his requests for bail.

Lagos told Ticman: “You have received several adverse decisions from this court, why don’t you go to a higher court?”

Ticman had sought bail for Arroyo, saying her health continued to deteriorate despite being detained at the Veterans Medical Memorial Center. Ticman said the now Pampanga representative was suffering from depression, to which her psychiatrist, Dr. Arnulfo Lopez, would be willing to testify in court.

Lopez, however, failed to appear at Thursday’s bail hearing.

The prosecution panel said Arroyo’s was an ordinary situation since all detainees suffered from some form of depression.

Division member Associate Justice Rodolfo A. Ponferrada assailed Ticman for filing practically a rehash of Arroyo’s motion for bail which her camp had filed three months ago.

Ponferrada pointed out it was Arroyo herself who had asked for hospital detention for health reasons.

Also, the justice said, she had sought bail only three months ago, which was denied after her own physician testified that “while she (Arroyo) is not well, she is also not sick, her health is only guarded.”

“Bail is not a safe pass for an ailing detainee,” Ponferrada said.

He blamed Arroyo’s redundant petitions for bail on the revolving door of lawyers on her team.

“You have been changing lawyers too often. What would (lawyers Jose B. Flaminiano and Laurence Hector B. Arroyo) say about this new motion? Are they involved in this petition, too?” Ponferrada asked.

Aside from bail, Arroyo has also asked the court to grant her a furlough to attend the 50th wedding anniversary celebration of El Shaddai leader Bro. Mike Velarde and his wife, Belen, on July 18.

The prosecution, however, suggested that Arroyo just send her “best wishes using modern technology” to the Velarde couple.

Sandiganbayan First Division presiding chair Justice Efren de la Cruz has given both camps five days to submit final comments on the latest motions.