2 senators say jailing Arroyo positive for the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines—If the treatment of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would have an international backlash, the global impact would prove positive for the country.

Senators Francis Pangilinan and Panfilo Lacson disagreed with their colleagues who had earlier warned on the possibility of an international backlash should Arroyo be jailed.

They dismissed as “off tangent’’ the observation of Senators Gringo Honasan and Miriam Defensor Santiago who claimed earlier that the country might get adverse criticism should the government allow Arroyo to be put in a detention facility.

Pangilinan and Lacson said that the country would be faced with heavier criticism had the former President who is facing charges for electoral sabotage been allowed to flee.

“The backlash would happen if she (Arroyo) is allowed to escape and she never got back. That’s where the bigger backlash would happen,” said Pangilinan at the Kapihan sa Diamond Hotel in Manila on Monday.

“What kind of justice system does the Philippines have if someone under investigation is allowed to escape? I think that the bigger backlash would happen if she left and never returned,” he added.

The senator cited at least three former presidents in Taiwan and South Korea who were jailed by their respective governments.

Recently, Taiwan’s supreme court sentenced former president Chen Shui-bian and his wife to a 19-year jail term for bribery. Chen was jailed for two years pending trial and is the first former Taiwanese president to be jailed.

The former first couple was also charged with money laundering and misuse of state funds involving US$20 million.

In 1995 former South Korean Presidents Roh Tae Woo and Chun Doo-Hwan, both military strongmen, were charged and arrested.

Roh was accused of allegedly taking bribes worth more than US$300 million from 30 businessmen during his term of office from 1988 to 1992 while Chun was arrested for ordering a 1980 crackdown of an uprising in Kwangju City which left hundreds dead. The massacre happened a year before he grabbed power and ruled from 1981 to 1988.

“So did those incidents have a backlash on them? No. In fact, the impact to these countries was their governments are so serious that they would hold responsible even high ranking officials for their crimes. So I don’t see the backlash in terms of how we are handling the case, in terms of how we are making the former president account for her acts,” Pangilinan said.

For his part Lacson maintained Arroyo only had herself to blame for her present woes.

“If there is anybody who should be blamed for placing her in a humiliating position, it is GMA (Arroyo) herself. First, who faked the ballots? Second, who faked the illness? It is her. That is why she’s in a very humiliating position now and to put the blame on the executive, to put the blame on the court, to put the blame on anybody else, I do not think it matches the truth,” the senator pointed out.

He added that it is up to the Pasay City regional trial court, where the case of electoral sabotage is filed, to determine where Arroyo should be detained.

“I do not think the executive has anything to do with that. So why blame the executive branch on (the issue of) where former President Arroyo should be detained?” Lacson said.