Look at law again, Chavez twits Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

Lawyer Frank Chavez on Sunday twitted former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for saying that the plunder complaint he had filed against her should be dismissed because he had failed to present evidence that she benefited from the alleged misuse of the P550–million health fund of overseas Filipino workers.

In a statement e-mailed to the Inquirer, Chavez said Arroyo and her lawyer “should look at the law again,” adding that the law proscribing plunder identified six predicate crimes.

“Personal profit becomes an element only in the last group enumerated in the law. No such requirement is needed in the first set defined by the law,” Chavez said.

“She says there is no proof that she made money or benefited from these transactions… Mere misuse, misappropriation or malversation of funds as a predicate crime is sufficient proof of plunder,” he said.

Chavez also clarified that the Office of the Ombudsman did not junk a similar complaint he had filed against Arroyo in 2004, disputing the now Pampanga lawmaker’s argument in the counteraffidavit she filed with Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday.

“In 2007, the Ombudsman’s office issued a resolution declaring its investigation closed and terminated without prejudice to the case’s refiling or reopening,” Chavez said.

He said then Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo and his successor, Merceditas Gutierrez, had sat on his plunder complaint.