Arroyo camp belittles new plunder case

Friday, September 9, 2011
MANILA — The camp of Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo downplayed the filing of fresh plunder case against her and her husband, saying progressive groups are merely playing politics at their expense.
Bayan Muna Representative Teddy Casino, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan chairperson Carol Araullo and Makabayan vice president Liza Maza on Thursday filed a fresh plunder case against the former President and her husband Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos, and former Transportation secretary Leandro Mendoza.
The case, the sixth plunder case against the former leader, was filed before the Office of the Ombudsman.
During the Arroyo administration, the government signed the $329-million deal with China’s Zhong Xing Telecommunications (ZTE) Corporation for the country’s proposed National Broadband Network (NBN). The agreement was highly questioned for allegedly being overpriced.
The deal was eventually scrapped after a series of Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigations and impeachment cases filed against the former President.
Raul Lambino, the former President’s legal counsel, believes that Casino’s group is using the NBN-ZTE deal for political grandstanding.
“The NBN-ZTE contract was cancelled by Arroyo and there was no damage incurred by the government in that aborted transaction. Again, this is another political grandstanding by said groups to keep on persecuting the Arroyos in media to advance their respective agendas,” he said in a text message.
Mike Arroyo echoed the sentiment of his wife’s lawyer, saying the accusations against them are all in the name of media mileage.
“I and the former President have already been cleared of the same charges being filed now. Clearly a case of administrative res judicata, which could and should be dismissed outright. We are being accused of plunder in the ZTE contract but the public should be reminded that it was cancelled by the former President before it could be implemented. Since it was cancelled, there was no injury to the government,” he said.
The former First Gentleman also denied that he benefited from the project. “There was also no personal gain whatsoever,” he said.
Mike Arroyo was said to have benefited from the botched project after whistleblower Jose de Venecia III testified in a Senate committee hearing that the former threatened him to “back off” from the NBN deal.
De Venecia testified that the actual cost of ZTE’s proposal is only $130 million but was later increased to $262 million even though it would only cover 30 percent of the country.
In the plunder case, the complainants stated that the accusations are based mainly on the facts gathered by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee during its investigation of the highly anomalous project.
“(The) complainants hope that with the appointment of the new Ombudsman, this particular complaint, among other complaints filed against the officials of the former administration for their involvement in graft and corruption, election fraud and human rights abuses, will be seriously and genuinely investigated and the perpetrators of such a large scale fraud will be expeditiously and seriously prosecuted,” the complainants said.
During his second State of the Nation Address, President Benigno Aquino III appointed former Supreme Court associate justice Conchita Carpio-Morales as the new Ombudsman. Morales’s nomination was earlier opposed by the former President for allegedly being biased against her.
The NBN project aimed to connect all government offices throughout the country through a high-speed broadband Internet connection.
The said project is also being considered by the Aquino administration. But this time, local telecommunications providers will be tapped for such project.
Abalos was implicated in the controversy after former National Economic and Development Authority director general Romulo Neri testified that the former offered him P200 million to approve the contract with ZTE.
Former Transportation secretary Mendoza, meanwhile, signed the NBN project contract after Arroyo granted him full powers to do so. Arroyo herself witnessed the signing of the contract.
The case over the NBN-ZTE deal is the sixth plunder complaint filed against former President Arroyo.
Other plunder charges include those filed by tax whistleblower Danilo Lihaylihay for the alleged anomalous sale of the old Iloilo airport property in 2007.
Another case was filed by former solicitor general Frank Chavez for the “questionable” diversion of P550 million in Overseas Workers Welfare Administration funds to PhilHealth during the 2004 presidential campaign.
Chavez also filed another case over the fertilizer fund scam.
Two separate cases were also filed against Arroyo and others over the alleged misuse of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office funds.
In Malacañang, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said the executive can only observe developments regarding the case filed by party-list lawmakers against Arroyo.
The Aquino administration would concentrate on its own cases to be filed against the Pampanga congresswoman, he said.
“You cannot stop any citizen from filing a case against anyone or former public officials if they believe in their minds that there is a probable cause to indict them for the crime that they are accusing the public official with,” he said hours after the lawmakers filed the case.
Lacierda said the NBN-ZTE deal is not among the cases the current administration is looking into.
“We are preparing our own. We are gathering all the evidence and as soon as we have a case that we believe can stand judicial scrutiny, we will file the cases,” he said.
Lacierda earlier stressed that they will not file cases that are “half-cooked” and President Benigno Aquino III wants convictions of those who went against the law.
Meanwhile, Malacañang expects that Ombudsman Carpio-Morales will give due process to Arroyo with regard the recent plunder charge against her.
“We expect Ombudsman Morales to apply the law, apply the facts to the law evenly. The test of due process, the test of fairness is whether you can give due process to your enemy,” he said.
“Ombudsman Morales also said that the former President can expect honesty, fairness, and due process from her office,” he added.
Asked if he thinks the plunder case against Arroyo now has a fighting chance with the presence of Carpio-Morales, Lacierda refused to comment, saying the executive has no control over the Office of the Ombudsman, which is a separate constitutional body. (Sunnex)
Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2011/09/09/arroyo-camp-belittles-new-plunder-case-178278
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