Plunder raps lodged vs Gloria Arroyo

February 28, 2008

Plunder and graft charges have been filed against President Arroyo before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the anomalous ZTE-National Broadband Network (NBN) deal.

Former Senate President Jovito Salonga, along with Kilos Bayan Foundation and Bantay Katarungan, in their complaint, yesterday accused the Chief Executive of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, Anti-Plunder Law and Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

He said the charges were based on Mrs. Arroyo’s admission during a radio interview last Feb. 23 where she admitted she was aware there were irregularities involved in the ZTE-NBN contract before flying to Boao, China, to witness the signing of the deal.

“The foregoing violations were committed under the circumstances when respondent, by her own express admission in a televised radio interview over dzRH made on or around Feb. 23, 2008, and which interview was thereafter widely replayed and reported in the broadcast and print media,” the complaint said.

In their three-page complaint, Salonga and the civil society groups said Mrs. Arroyo canceled the contract only on Sept. 22, 2007, or “five months after hearing the anomalies in the contract.”

He stressed that while the President can’t be charged before the courts, Mrs. Arroyo can’t exercise the same benefit in undergoing an investigation by the Ombudsman.

“The Constitution said the President is immune from suits but not from any investigation and the Ombudsman is likewise mandated to conduct and subject to investigation any public officials even if he or she is the President,” Salonga told reporters during a media briefing at his home in Mandaluyong City.

He said the cases can progress when the President’s term is over in 2010.

“It will be brought to the Sandiganbayan. Immunity from suit covers that but by the time it would have been year 2010 and therefore she will become a private citizen… she wouldn’t be in power forever especially now after she proclaimed, ‘I will step down in 2010,’” the former Senate chief added.

The group also asked the Ombudsman to act immediately on the complaint as it called on Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to inhibit herself from the investigation into broadband controversy.

Malacañang, however, downplayed the case filed against Mrs. Arroyo, saying such legal action will not prosper because the law dictates that a sitting President cannot be sued.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, however, said they respect the right of Salonga in suing Mrs. Arroyo.

“Well, that’s the right of the former senator but then, you know, that as sitting President, she cannot be sued,” he stressed.

Deputy presidential spokesman Lorelei Fajardo, for her part, branded the filing of the case as a “sad development” and is “simply jumping on the bandwagon of reckless judicial actions” against the Chief Executive.

She said Salonga could have just waited first for the Senate investigation on the NBN deal to conclude.

“The filing of said complaint is a sad development, former Senator Salonga, a staunch constitutionalist, could have waited for the Senate to end its investigation before filing any complaint. We feel that everyone is just simply jumping on the bandwagon of reckless judicial actions against the President. While the CBCP (Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines) in its pastoral letter extended Christian understanding and civility in the appreciation of the current events, others have hastily concluded culpability on the part of the President. We pray that all may take time out to discern the impact of their actions not so much on the president as a person but rather the presidency as an institution,” Fajardo said.

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