ShareThisMANILA – The lawyer wife of Hollywood actor George Clooney has elevated the case of former President now Pampanga congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) as she called for her release and asked the Philippine government to issue a public apology for violating the rights of former President under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
International human rights and British lawyer Amal Alamuddin-Clooney, who visited the ailing Mrs. Arroyo in a hospital in 2013, stated that the Philippine government violated ICCPR’s Articles 9, 14, 19 and 25 when Arroyo was placed in detention in the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City despite her frail health and the alleged weak evidence on the plunder complaint filed against her before the Ombudsman.
The 42-page complaint report was filed by Clooney last Feb. 26 before the
UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD), a body under the UN Human Rights Commission together with her assistant, Katherine O’Byrne. Mrs. Arroyo’s lawyers had assisted Clooney in the preparations of the complaint.
The UNHRC must call for the release of Arroyo to correct the mistreatment, she added.
Malacanang downplayed the news on Clooney’s action bringing up the case of Mrs. Arroyo to the UN body, saying it has yet to receive notification regarding the petition filed at the United Nations by former president Arroyo’s international lawyer.
“We have yet to receive a formal notice on the reported case filed by Ms. Amal Alamuddin-Clooney before the United Nations. The government will respond accordingly, through the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the Solicitor General, once we shall have received the requisite notice,” Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr. said.
Secretary Coloma was commenting on reports that international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has sought the intervention of the UN Human Rights Council regarding the alleged violation of Arroyo’s rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
According to reports, Clooney said the Philippine government has violated ICCPR’s Articles 9, 14, 19 and 25 when Arroyo was placed in detention at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City despite her medical condition and political status.
Clooney, a London-based Lebanese-British lawyer who is married to Hollywood actor George Clooney, said Arroyo must be given temporary release so she could seek medical treatment abroad.
Clooney said Arroyo’s release from detention will “avoid irreparable damage to her health.”
Arroyo must be temporarily released to allow her to seek medical treatment abroad, she added.
The UNHRC must also recommend granting Arroyo unrestricted access to means of communications like a mobile phone, Internet and laptop computer, she said.
“Her health has deteriorated in detention and because of her detention, her prognosis is currently poor, and her doctors have expressly found that her continued confinement may not only slow down the healing process but also hinder full recovery. They urge that the issue of her continued detention, be attended to, in order to prevent serious impairment of her health and danger to her life. At her age of 67, the risk of irremediable harm is also increased,” Clooney said in a statement.
She has asked the UN body to ask for the release of Arroyo from detention as an interim relief pursuant to Rule 92 of the Committee’s Rule of Procedures to allow her to seek medical treatment abroad.
Arroyo, who underwent three surgeries in 2011 due to a cervical spine condition, has been under detention since November 2011.
She was granted bail in July 2012 on the electoral sabotage case filed against her but was re-arrested in October that same year when a plunder case was filed against her in the Sandiganbayan.
Clooney elevated Arroyo’s case to the UN rights body last Febuary 26. She called Arroyo’s continued detention and prosecution as
“politically motivated.”
.A panel under the UNHRC has acknowledged receiving Clooney’s complaint in behalf of Mrs. Arroyo.
The Philippines may face international backlash as a result of the filing before the UNHRC of a complaint for gross violation of the human rights of former President, according to Filipino international and human rights law expert Antonio La Vinia.
La Vinia, who placed third in the 1989 Bar, is the dean of Ateneo de Manila University School of Government.
He admitted that the complaint has sufficient bases to prod the UN body to recommend to the Aquino government the immediate release of Arroyo. Now a Pampanga congresswoman, Arroyo has been under hospital detention for nearly four years.
“Sa isang bayan na tulad ng Pilipinas na ipinagyayabang natin ang rule of law, malaking bagay iyon (This is a big issue for a country like the Philippines that prides itself of observing the rule of law),” stressed La Vinia, dean of Ateneo de Manila University School of Government, in a television interview.
“Sang-ayon ako sa sinasabi ni Mareng Winnie na malaking kahihiyan ang ginagawa natin kay President GMA (I agree with Mareng Winnie that what we are doing to President GMA is a huge embarrassment), he added.
Meanwhile, former Philippine Ambassador to UN Lauro Baja said the case filed by Clooney may have a chance for positive action by the UN body, but how to enforce its decision would be a big question later.
Lawyer Larry Gadon, one of Arroyo’s lawyers, said the UN rights body’s working group on arbitrary detention acknowledged receiving the complaint.
“Ang advice sa amin ni Atty. Clooney, sumagot na sa kanya ang working group on arbitrary detention. Ipapadala nila sa Philippine government, bibigyan ng notice mag-apela na kung pwede payagan makapag-piyansa si dating PGMA, payagan na makapagpagamot abroad,” Gadon said.
. Clooney has expressed optimism that the UNHRC will act favorably on her complaint.
Arroyo, who turns 68 on April 5, was accused of the plunder of P366 million of intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) along with former PCSO Chairman Sergio Valencia and Board members like Manuel Morato and other officials in an alleged conspiracy.
Arroyo’s lawyers have pointed out that Valencia, Morato and almost all her co-accused have been granted bail and government prosecutors have presented only one witness, Aleta Tolentino, a member of the PCSO board who admitted having no direct knowledge of the charges during the hearing of the case. Tolentino, a lawyer, has since been replaced as PCSO director.
Philippine Star columnist Carmen Pedrosa described Clooney’s action as a breakthrough for Mrs. Arroyo.
“This is a breakthrough not just for the human rights of a former president of the Philippines and its international repercussion but it can set a train of other human rights violations of Filipinos that have not had the benefit of redress available through the world body,” she said in her column.
Pedrosa said Arroyo’s case would be an important precedent for the Philippines.
It was gathered that Clooney’s complaint filed before the UNHRC’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention last Feb. 26 was drafted by Clooney with the assistance of Arroyo’s lawyers Modesto Ticman Jr. and Larry Gadon.
Clooney, 37, specializes in international law, criminal law, human rights, and extradition cases. Among her prominent clients are Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Timoshenko. She has been named a visiting professor on human rights by the Columbia Law School in New York.