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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Sandigan junks GMA plea to end plunder trial

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THE Sandiganbayan has rejected the bid of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to end the trial of the plunder suit she is facing in connection with her alleged misuse of a P366-million fund of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

The anti-graft court’s First Division rejected the plea filed by Arroyo through her lawyers Jose Flaminiano and Hector Laurence Arroyo and ordered the trial to proceed.

But the former President will file a motion for reconsideration to challenge the court’s decision within 15 days upon its receipt, Laurence Arroyo said.

“We are optimistic we can change the minds of the justices,” Laurence Arroyo said.

“We believe there are some contentions that they have not seen in resolving our demurrer. There are issues and points that the Sandiganbayan needs to be clarified.

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“We haven’t received a copy of the resolution yet. I just heard over the radio the report of the denial of the demurrer. We will definitely file a motion for reconsideration.”

Laurence Arroyo said Mrs. Arroyo was already aware of the Sandiganbayan’s ruling and of her lawyers’ plan to file a motion for reconsideration.

“We remain hopeful that we can yet persuade the court that the prosecution failed to meet its burden of proving beyond reasonable doubt the elements of plunder and the existence of a conspiracy,” Laurence Arroyo said in a statement.

“The reported acquittal of the other accused weakens even more the prosecution’s conspiracy theory.”

The First Division had granted the similar pleadings filed by four of Mrs. Arroyo’s co-accused: former Commission on Audit chairman Reynaldo Villar and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office ex-board members Manuel  Morato, Raymundo Roquero and Jose Taruc V, who were earlier granted bail for their provisional liberty.

The associate justices also ordered the acquittal of Villar and company.

But the demurrer to evidence filed by ex-budget and accounts manager Benigno Aguas and ex-board chairman Sergio Valencia, who is facing graft charges, were also denied by the anti-graft court.

Citing a November 2013 decision denying bail to Mrs. Arroyo, the court said her “OK” marginal note in the requests for additional confidence and intelligence fund made by former PCSO general manager Rosario Uriarte from 2008 to 2010 did not simply mean the approval of the request, but the approval of the fund use.

“The court believes that there is sufficient evidence that Uriarte accumulated more than P50 million in CIF funds [in violation of the Commission on Audit rules], thus characterizing such ill-gotten wealth,” the court’s decision said.

Uriarte used Arroyo’s approval to illegally accumulate the CIF funds that she cashed during the period 2008 to 2010, the court said.

 “It seems that in a conspiracy to commit plunder, the essence or material point is not the actual receipt of the monies or unjust enrichment by each conspirator, but that a conspirator had participated in the accumulation of ill-gotten wealth directly or indirectly,” the Sandiganbayan said.

In July 2012, the Office of the Ombudsman filed plunder and graft charges against Mrs. Arroyo and the other accused for alleged conspiracy to misuse P365.9 million in PCSO funds and divert the money for their personal gain.

 Mrs. Arroyo is now detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City under hospital arrest.

“She is frail and thin,” Laurence Arroyo said.

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