Mike Arroyo wants raps dropped: I was never part of gov’t

Former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo on Thursday asked the Sandiganbayan to drop the graft charges filed against him by the Ombudsman in connection with his alleged participation in the botched NBN-ZTE national broadband network deal during his wife’s presidency.

In a motion to quash filed by his lawyer, Arroyo said the antigraft court had no jurisdiction over his alleged acts as the NBN-ZTE contract was signed and executed in Boao, China, on June 6, 2010, although the information alleged the place of commission was Malacañang.

Arroyo said that unlike the Revised Penal Code, Republic Act No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act had no provision that allowed its application outside the Philippines. He also said the law did not cover private persons like himself.

Arroyo said he was never a public official and had never held a position in government. His wife, the former president, is now the representative of the second district of Pampanga.

“Accused Arroyo is not a public official, as the alleged Office of the First Gentleman is not a public office, hence, he could not be charged with violating Section 3(g), which by its own terms could be violated only by a public official,” read the motion to quash.

It said this was admitted to by the Office of the Special Prosecutor in its comment to the accused’s Motion for Authority to Travel dated June 7, 2012.

In that opposition, the prosecutor said “the facts alleged in the criminal information do not constitute a violation of… RA 3019 because the NBN-ZTE contract was already canceled and abrogated.”

Arroyo also said that while the Supreme Court–in Go v Sandiganbayan,  Singian v Sandiganbayan and Santillano v People of the Philippines–had ruled that a private person in conspiracy with a public official may be charged with violating Section 3(g) of RA 3019, this ruling did not apply to him because unlike Go and the others, he was not a contracting party or a representative of one in the NBN-ZTE contract.