Harry Roque’s Blog

At long last, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was finally charged in Court. While it took P Noy more than 500 days to do so, it took just the possibility of her flight to get P Noy’s people moving to charge her. Absent this Information in the Regional Trial Court of Pasay, GMA would have been able to leave the country what with the highest court of the and ignoring pending preliminary investigations against her as basis for the issuance of a Watch Order List, the means by which to prevent her from leaving the country. Is the worse over? Well certainly without it, GMA would certainly have fled.

So what next? Well aside from counsel being temporarily being spared from castration, the filing of this recent case may or may not lead to GMA finally being declared a criminal. While election fraud, the crime for which she has been charged with is a non-bailable offense; still, the Constitution says that bail -even in such cases -may still be granted where “evidence of guilt” is not strong. For purposes hence of being the legal basis for preventing GMA from leaving the country, the merit of recent Information would have to evaluated by the Judge. If he finds that the evidence of guilt is weak, and I certainly hope that these would go beyond Zaldy Ampatuan’s clearly hearsay testimony that he heard someone say that his father was told to cheat for GMA, or even beyond Unas testifying that he actually heard the old man Ampatuan say that he was ordered by GMA to cheat; the Judge may yet allow her to post bail and even to go abroad for alleged medical reasons. Sure, there could be evidence of the cheating itself, as Senator Koko Pimentel had already proven in the Senate Electoral Tribunal. But the question is: is there evidence that GMA was indeed the principal who ordered the cheating.

The problem with using the 2007 as the basis to hold GMA criminally liable is the reality that she was not a candidate in the said elections. Unlike in the 2004 elections where cheating could be proven to have been committed to make her win, what exactly did she personally gain by cheating Koko Pimentel of four years of his term? Seems to me that it was the fake Senator Migs Zubiri whose criminal liability should be established, rather than GMA.

But P Noy’s legal advisers knew that the fraud of 2004, even if it was responsible for installing a fake President, is basis only for the filing of cases for election fraud, which unlike election sabotage, is bailable. Certainly, if GMA would be charged, it should be for something that would be, as she herself did to President Erap, non-bailable. Furthermore, the reality is that to establish GMA’s culpability for depriving da “King” FPJ of the Presidency would be to acknowledge that P Noy, like his ladies in waiting, Dinky and Ging, supported a cheat in 2004. That should hurt.

We do not know the extent of the evidence that the COMELEC intends to offer against GMA. But already, aside from the evidence emanating from Zaldy and Unas, I do not recall any further evidence proving GMA’s liability. Not that she did not actually order the cheating to be done. The issue now is whether these evidence are strong enough to deny her bail or even to deny her the privilege of being allowed to travel abroad supposedly for medical reasons?

Other questions linger. Why was the complaint filed in the Regional Trial Court? If it is proven that GMA indeed ordered the fraud in 2007 to be perpetrated, she did so when she was President. The law establishing the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan says that officials such as a President should be tried in the Sandiganbayan. And yes, why was it filed in the RTC of Pasay City. Was the fraud committed in the jurisdiction of Pasay? Presumably, the only basis for filing it in Pasay is that it was where the Senate Electoral Tribunal then temporarily conducted its canvass of votes for Senators in PICC? Lack of jurisdiction, among others, is a ground to dismiss a criminal Information.

What is clear is that like many other policies shaped by P Noy’s advisers, this latest case in the Pasay RTC was an ad hoc remedy to keep GMA from leaving the country. Already, the delay in filing a case against GMA in court attest to the fact that  PNOY’s administration is lacking in the capacity to hold individuals liable for their criminal acts. Whether this ad hoc remedy will lead to justice remains to be seen. Certainly, the Maguindanao massacre victims, the Evangelista family, the Ortega family, and all the rest who have fallen victims to the worse crimes involving the violation of the right to life – all know that it may not be forthcoming soon.

But meanwhile, let’s give credit where it is due. Good job!, even if many of us would have wanted the little thing of someone subject to the guillotine.