ShareThisWithout any doubt, the ghost of former President and now incumbent Pampanga Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s past administration has been coming back to haunt her.
Already, four plunder cases have been filed against her and now comes a belated allegation by former Governor Rizaldy “Zaldy” Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) that his family was the cheating machine in the last elections of the former President. Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri was named as beneficiary of the alleged cheating.
The fourth plunder case against Mrs. Arroyo was filed this week by two of her colleagues at the House of Representatives in connection with the alleged misuse of millions of funds from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) during her term as Chief Executive. Bayan Muna party-list Reps.
Teodoro Casino and Neri Colmenares filed the case on Tuesday before the Office of the Ombudsman and it was personally received by Acting Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro who vowed to give priority in the investigation of the case.
“This does not just involve stealing money.
This involves stealing money from the poor,” said Casino after filing the case. Former PCSO general manager Rosario Uriarte, who admitted to requesting a total of P325 million in intelligence funds for the agency from 2008 to 2010, was also charged along with Arroyo. Also included in the complaint were former members of the PCSO board of directors.
At a hearing of the Senate on the PCSO funds and the vehicles bought with PCSO money for at least seven bishops, Uriarte said that the former president personally allowed the release of the funds, which she claimed to have been used for the agency’s nationwide small town lottery project and as blood money for Filipinos who were in death row in Saudi Arabia.
Lawyers of Gloria Arroyo led by Raul Lambino immediately trounced the new charges against the former President as political persecution, claiming that they were in order and allowable by law and rules to help the needy citizens and overseas Filipinos and that she never personally gained from the said transactions. But the Bayan Muna party-list lawmakers insisted that Arroyo and Uriarte allegedly violated Articles 217 and 220 of the Revised Penal Code, and Section 3 (e) of Republic Act No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and Republic Act 7080 or the Plunder Law.
Gloria Arroyo is facing three other plunder charges in connection with her alleged involvement in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam; the transfer of multi-million funds of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to Philhealth to allegedly boost her presidential campaign in 2004; and the alleged use of the P1.6-billion fertilizer funds (distinct from the P728 million) again for her presidential bid in 2004.
Despite all the public and media frenzy over Arroyo’s plunder cases, the accused herself doesn’t appear a bit perturbed. Why would she be? Haven’t she and her husband been through these before?
You see, cases like these have a funny way of dying and getting buried into oblivion after a while. And nobody, not the public, or the media even dare ask why, how or what the hell happened? Why should this be any different?
Arroyo’s 3 time-ditching of the Department of Justice’s preliminary investigation confirms her lack of respect for the Philippine justice system. She must be right. If she weren’t, she and her husband and cohorts would have been in jail a long time ago.