Aquino: Raps vs Arroyo filed November

FACING FOREIGN MEDIA President Aquino answers questions from the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines during Wednesday’s forum at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Makati City. EDWIN BACASMAS

President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday said charges would be filed next month against his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, even as reports emerged that she was suffering from a “rare disease” and that she would seek medical treatment in Germany this month.

“[T]he latest information that I have is by November we will be filing charges,” the President said in reply to a question at a forum with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (Focap). He did not elaborate beyond saying that the details were “still being finalized.”

Pressed again on who would be charged next month, Mr. Aquino said: “You asked [about] my predecessor. So I said, ‘Yes, by November.’”

The ailing Arroyo, now the representative of Pampanga’s second district, is the subject of five plunder complaints filed in the Department of Justice (DOJ). She is afflicted with a condition called “hypoparathyroidism,” according to her husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo.

The couple are also implicated in the purported poll fraud in 2004 and 2007 that is being investigated by a joint committee of the DOJ and the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Plunder is a nonbailable offense. Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes has been quoted as saying that a prima facie finding in the poll fraud inquiry could result in the filing of charges of electoral sabotage, which is likewise nonbailable.

Mike Arroyo himself will be charged with graft this afternoon in connection with the secondhand helicopters sold as brand new to the Philippine National Police in 2009, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Wednesday.

‘Obsession’

In a statement issued later Wednesday, Mike Arroyo said Mr. Aquino’s remarks at the Focap forum betrayed his intention to put the Arroyos behind bars “regardless of the evidence or the lack of it.”

“We have a President who has seemingly become obsessed with the Arroyos and putting them in jail. Are we still governed by the rule of law or by just one person? It seems all government efforts in this time of calamities and extreme need are geared toward making sure we are charged in court and jailed. This administration is preoccupied [with] persecuting us rather than attending to the needs of our countrymen devastated by recent calamities,” Mike Arroyo said.

He added that he and his family would face all charges to be filed against them and that they would be ultimately vindicated.

But Justice Secretary Leila de Lima clarified that the DOJ had no definite date for the filing of cases against the Arroyos.

“That one I cannot make an expressed commitment on because all the cases are going through the process,” De Lima told reporters when asked to comment on the President’s statement to the foreign media concerning his predecessor.

“I would not want to preempt the outcome of the investigations [of various government agencies],” she said.

De Lima said Mr. Aquino’s statement was “just a reiteration” of his administration’s commitment to bring to justice those accused of wrongdoing.

“That is and has always been the target of this administration—to hold people accountable, including former high officials of government, for graft and corruption,” she said.

Fact-finding done

De Lima said the DOJ-Comelec panel had completed its search for evidence and witnesses in the alleged fraud during the 2004 and 2007 elections.

She said the panel would submit within the week its report and recommendations to the joint investigating committee, paving the way for the start of the formal preliminary inquiry into the purported poll fraud.

“On my part, since I’m part of the [DOJ], I should not be making categorical statements or commitments because it’s really subject to the outcome of these processes if there is probable cause [to indict Arroyo],” De Lima said.

Nonetheless, she said, the joint committee would abide by its commitment to conclude its investigation by December.

“I reiterated that commitment to the President. He knows it,” she said. “At the rate that … our fact-finding team is working, I’m hopeful that something will be out before Christmas.”

Asked about the possibility of Arroyo spending Christmas in jail, De Lima said: “It’s a possible scenario, but it’s something that we cannot say or confirm categorically at this point because the investigation has yet to be concluded.

“If there is a determination of probable cause, that is the next logical thing to do: file charges. And if these are nonbailable offenses, a logical consequence or scenario is that somebody may be jailed.”

But issuing a premature statement on the result of various cases filed against Arroyo with the DOJ may be “preemptive of the outcome of this whole process,” De Lima said.

‘Airtight’ case

Speaking with reporters, Lacson said the new case prepared by the Senate blue ribbon committee against Mike Arroyo would be “airtight,” unlike the one filed earlier by the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

“We believe so because the investigation that we did in the Senate [concerning the sale of the used choppers to the PNP] was more comprehensive,” he said.

Two used helicopters said to be owned by Mike Arroyo, along with a brand-new one, were purchased by the PNP in 2009 at P105 million, in a deal purportedly disadvantageous to the government.

Senator Teofisto Guingona III, chair of the blue ribbon committee, is to present its findings on the controversy at 10:30 a.m. Thursday during the weekly “Kapihan sa Senado” media forum.

Lacson said Mike Arroyo would be charged with graft in the Office of the Ombudsman Thursday afternoon.

The real owner

“We have established that the real owner [of the helicopters] was FG (Mike Arroyo). So he was the principal character,” Lacson said.

Guingona said without elaborating that the Senate’s case would include the “big ones.”

He said he would be accompanied to the Ombudsman at 2 p.m. Thursday by Lacson and Senator Aquilino Pimentel III.

According to Lacson, retired PNP Director General Jesus Verzosa, under whose watch the controversial chopper sale was made, will be included in the charge sheet.

PNP case infirmed

Lacson merely smiled when asked if Mike Arroyo’s younger brother, Negros Occidental Representative Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo, would be included in the suit.

“It’s a long list. I don’t want to preempt our committee chairman [who will make the formal announcement],” he said.

Iggy Arroyo earlier claimed that it was he who had leased the two helicopters in question.

Lacson expressed misgivings over the plunder case filed by the CIDG against Mike Arroyo.

“[The Senate’s case] is stronger in the sense that we believe that the plunder case had infirmities (alanganin), that it is possible that it will be dismissed due to a technicality,” he said. “So we want it covered by way of filing an antigraft case or cases against those we believe were responsible.”

Lacson said the Senate’s complaint would be separate from the CIDG case. He said it would be up to the Office of the Ombudsman to consolidate the complaints based on its appreciation of the merits. With a report from Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.

Originally posted at 04:29 pm | Wednesday, October 12, 2011