Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo finally regained freedom early last night, a few hours after the Sandiganbayan issued a release order that ended her nearly four years of continued hospital detention.

She left the Veterans Memorial Medical Center hospital suite, her home since October, 2012, at about 6:15 p.m. and was expected to be escorted to her home in La Vista Subdivision, Quezon City.

A member of the former chief executive’s staff disclosed the possibility that she will motor directly to the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Makati City for medical check-up.

Arroyo was with daughter, Luli and her son, at the VMMC suite where they awaited the release order. Political allies, relatives and close relatives poured constantly at the suite and joined them for lunch and Mass while waiting for her release.

Her release came two days after the Supreme Court cleared her of a conspiracy to commit plunder charge after voting 11-4 to uphold a motion to the demurrer to the evidence stressing that government failed to present evidence to secure her conviction.

The Supreme Court (SC) officially released yesterday its decision that ordered the dismissal of the plunder case against Arroyo and her immediate release from detention.

An official copy of the decision was what the Sandiganbayan needed to implement the release of Mrs. Arroyo from hospital arrest.

In an 11-4 vote on the decision written by Justice Lucas P. Bersamin, the SC ruled there was insufficient evidence to pin down Mrs. Arroyo on plunder involving funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

In its decision, the SC agreed with Mrs. Arroyo and her co-accused former PCSO assistant general manager Benigno Aguas that the Sandiganbyan committed grave abuse of discretion in denying their demurer to evidence.

It said the prosecution failed to prove that there was conspiracy between Mrs. Arroyo and the other persons charged in the case and there was no proof that the former President and Aguas amassed ill-gotten wealth of at least P50 million which is the “corpus delicti” of plunder.

It said Mrs. Arroyo merely affixed “OK” on the request for the additional confidential intelligence funds (CIF) by her fellow accused, then PCSO General Manager Rosario Uriarte.

The affixing of “OK” could not be considered an “overt act” for purposes of plunder, it stressed.

“There was also no evidence, testimonial or otherwise, presented by the prosecution showing even the remotest possibility that the CIFs of the PCSO had been diverted to either GMA or Aguas, or Uriarte,” the decision pointed out.

“The insistence of the prosecution is unwarranted. GMA’s approval of Uriarte’s requests for additional CIFs did not make her part of any design to raid the public treasury as the means to amass, accumulate and acquire ill-gotten wealth,” it also said.

“Absent the specific allegation in the information to that effect, and competent proof thereon, GMA’s approval of Uriarte’s requests, even if unqualified, could not make her part of any criminal conspiracy to commit plunder or any other crime considering that her approval was not by any means irregular or illegal,” it added.

The decision stated that the prosecution was relying on the doctrine of command responsibility in alleging that Mrs. Arroyo conspired with her co-accused to amass ill-gotten wealth.

However, it said such reliance to that doctrine of command responsibility “is misplaced, legally unacceptable, and incomprehensible.”

“But, this case involves neither a probe of GMA’s actions as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, nor of a human rights issue. As such, it is legally improper to impute the actions of Uriarte to GMA in the absence of any conspiracy between them,” the decision said.

In her dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno said the prosecution successfully established that there was conspiracy among the accused.

“To my mind, the prosecution has successfully established the conspiracy scheme through the various irregularities in the CIF disbursement. These irregularities or red flags clearly spell a conspiracy to commit plunder when the amounts involved and the processes of requesting, approval, and liquidating the amounts are holistically considered,” Sereno added.

Justice Marvic Mario Victor F. Leonen, in his dissent, said:

“She knew that it was her duty to scrutinize if repeated requests for increases in these funds especially in ever-increasing amounts in the millions of pesos were done regularly and for legitimate ends.”

Leonen said the majority decision is premature considering that what was raised in the petition was the denial by the Sandiganbyan of the demurrer to the evidence and not a judgment by the anti-graft court after considering the evidence from both sides.

Legal quarters said that since the SC decision is in the nature of an acquittal of an accused in a criminal case, no motion for reconsideration may be filed by the prosecution.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Ben R. Rosario & Rey G. Panaligan

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