SC extends stay of Arroyo trial

Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. AFP FILE PHOTO

THE SUPREME Court has extended for 90 more days the status quo ante order it issued last Oct. 20 that stopped the antigraft court Sandiganbayan’s ongoing trial of former president and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for plunder.

“The court issues a status quo ante order for 90 days, or until Feb. 19, 2016, directing the parties to observe the status quo prevailing before the issuance of the assailed orders of the Sandiganbayan dated April 6, 2015,” the high tribunal’s spokesperson, lawyer Theodore Te, said in a briefing Tuesday.

BACKSTORY: SC stops Gloria Arroyo’s plunder trial for 30 days

Last April, the Sandiganbayan’s First Division denied Ms Arroyo’s motion for demurrer of evidence and in September upheld with finality her petition for bail in connection with the plunder case involving her alleged participation in the plundering of P366 million in intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

Ms Arroyo appealed to the high court, saying that her continued detention has resulted in the impairment of her health and that she was demonstrably not a flight risk.

The former president is currently under hospital arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.

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