MANILA, Philippines - The plunder complaint filed against former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is full of holes and unlikely to hold up in court, one of her staunchest supporters said yesterday.
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| Plunder case |
House Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said the plunder case filed by former solicitor general Frank Chavez was part of efforts by the Aquino administration to rid the bureaucracy of Arroyo appointees as well as divert the attention of Filipinos from various crises besetting the country.
Chavez accused the former leader of diverting some P530 million in health insurance funds from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., which printed and distributed PhilHealth cards bearing Arroyo’s picture during the 2004 presidential elections.
“She’s (Mrs. Arroyo) in the headlines, congratulations,” Suarez said in a telephone interview.
“I couldn’t see how distributing PhilHealth cards can be considered as plunder,” he said. “As Malacañang continues to bungle from one crisis to another, like the rising prices of food and oil, the attention of the people is diverted to antics like these.”
He said that plunder is committed when a government official takes public funds amounting to at least P50 million for private purposes.
“Where is the plunder there? There is no connection from public to private (funds),” Suarez said.
Arroyo has not commented on the issue. The Pampanga lawmaker is abroad for a series of speaking engagements.
A close supporter who declined to be named explained her silence on the issue.
“First, she is abroad, so there have been no extensive consultations yet with her. Second, this is still a plunder complaint, so we have to tread carefully, despite the ridiculousness of the charge, and most of all, given the prevailing poisoned atmosphere we have now, anything can be misconstrued or twisted that even legitimate and effective programs of former Cabinet secretaries are attacked,” the opposition member said.
Suarez said it is possible that Chavez filed the complaint to get into the good graces of President Aquino and secure a prominent government position.
“I heard that he (Chavez) wanted the DOJ (Department of Justice) post last year,” he said.
He said then PhilHealth chief Francisco Duque III, who is now chairman of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and an Arroyo appointee, was included in the complaint. Duque has a fixed seven-year term at the CSC.
No ethics complaint
At the House of Representatives, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said Mrs. Arroyo and her son Ang Galing party-list Rep. Mikey Arroyo were unlikely to face ethics complaints from their colleagues because their alleged crimes were committed before their election as lawmakers.
“We are talking about the 15th Congress here. This is the period in which the Congress has jurisdiction,” he told reporters. Mikey is facing P73-million tax evasion charges along with his wife Angela.
The younger Arroyo said yesterday the move of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to create a panel to investigate the tax evasion charges against him and his wife was “welcome news.”
“I thank her (De Lima) for according me the due process which BIR Commissioner (Kim) Henares has denied me as she has already judged me as guilty,” Mikey said in a statement.
He promised to cooperate fully with the DOJ panel and expressed optimism that he would be cleared of “these trumped-up charges leveled against me.”
“I also hope that everyone in the Aquino administration will follow Secretary De Lima’s action in following due process instead of resorting to malicious propaganda and trial by publicity and ‘convicting’ people whom they perceive as enemies without the benefit of trial,” Mikey said.
At Malacañang, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the administration is ready to share records and resources in the investigation of the latest plunder complaint against Mrs. Arroyo.
“Since we were not the ones at OWWA at the time the misuse supposedly occurred, then we would have no problem if they would ask for records from that agency. The agency will be open to give records and whatever is there, we can give,” Valte said in a press briefing at the Palace.
Valte said it would be up to the OWWA officials to speak out. “If they were there, if the records will bear them out then there’s no problem, we are all for transparency,” she said.
Valte stressed the Palace would allow OWWA to release documents relevant to the case against Arroyo if necessary.
“We see no problem with it. We’ve always engendered transparency in government,” Valte said.
She said this could not be considered direct help since “it is really our mandate” to keep public records open to scrutiny.
“These are public documents, they have to be made accessible to the people,” Valte said.
But she, along with Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma, stressed that the legal process should take its course.
Coloma said it is the right of every citizen to press charges against anyone suspected of wrongdoing.
“Our view is that this is one way to shed light on the issues in the past that did not achieve closure. And because there was no justice… we cannot move forward until the issues in the past were resolved as far as the correct use of public funds was concerned,” Coloma said over Radio Mindanao Network.
Valte also said the alleged OWWA fund misuse was not part of the “landmines” left behind by Mrs. Arroyo and unearthed by the Aquino administration.
“In fact, if that was one, then a Cabinet secretary or the head of an agency or the bureau concerned would have filed the necessary charges,” Valte said.
“We’ve always said time and again, whenever a perceived ally or a perceived enemy is faced with charges like this particular one, what we always say – and I think the record can bear it out t– hat the administration will extend to anyone, whether perceived as friend or foe, the due process that should be accorded to any citizen of the Philippines,” Valte said.
“We’ve always encouraged people who have facts, who have evidence against any supposed wrongdoing to come out and to support the government and in the hearing of these cases,” she said.
She also said it would be up to the DOJ to determine who among potential witnesses should be placed under the Witness Protection Program.
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