ShareThisFormer president
denies charges
on Iloilo airport sale
MANILA (PinoyNews) – Former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is facing plunder charges in connection with the sale of the old Iloilo airport to Megaworld for P1.8 billion.
Arroyo personally appeared before the prosecutors of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to deny the charges.
This developed as Mrs. Arroyo is no longer on the list of Forbes.com’s most powerful women int he world.
Former President Arroyo
Only last year, Mrs. Arroyo was no. 44 and in 2008 she was no. 41 from fourth rank in 2005.
US First Lady Michelle Obama zoomed to the top of the list this year as she has been described to have made the office of first lady her own.
The lady lawmaker was accompanied by her legal counsel, former Justice Secretary and Solicitor General Estelito Mendoza.
In her counter-affidavit, Arroyo, through her legal counsel, said that she should not be charged with plunder before the DOJ.
Arroyo argued that what she only did was that she issued an Executive Order related to the sale of the old Iloilo airport.
She stressed that she was not a participant to the actual negotiation for the sale of the 55-hectare airport.
The respondent noted that it was a sale undertaken by the government, hence, it was exempted from the payment of capital gains tax.
Arroyo signed and executed her counter-affidavit before the DOJ prosecutors led by Senior State Prosecutor Peter Ong.
On the other hand, Mendoza questioned the jurisdiction of the DOJ over the case, saying that the proper venue should be the Office of the Ombudsman (Ombudsman).
Aside from Arroyo, other respondents are former Executive Secretary and now Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Alberto Romulo and former Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Margarito Teves.
The criminal complaint for plunder was earlier filed by Danilo Dilaydilay, president of the Philippine Association of Revenue Informers (PARI).
The plunder case against Arroyo was not yet a matter for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to get into, Commissioner Kim Henares said.
Henares cited a legal opinion issued before, which said that when government sells properties it was not subjected to capital gains tax.
“So, until and unless there are reasons to overturn that opinion, there is no basis for us to look into it,” Henares said.
The transaction involved the 2007 sale of the 54.5-hectare old Iloilo airport for P 1.8 billion in 2007 to Megaworld Corp.