'GMA can still be sued over ZTE'

MANILA, Philippines - Deputy presidential spokesperson Charito Planas yesterday said President Arroyo can still be sued over the cancelled national broadband network (NBN) deal once she steps down from office.

Planas pointed out that Mrs. Arroyo was excluded from the cases recommended by the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the deal because of her immunity from suit.

“The Ombudsman said that as president, you can’t file a case against her. Now when she’s no longer president, anybody can file a case,” Planas said.

However, she emphasized that the prosecutors would have to find evidence to support a case against Mrs. Arroyo first.

“Those are the processes and because the departments in the government are co-equal and independent, no one must interfere with the other’s function. There will be a process that will be availed of,” Planas said.

She also noted that any Filipino citizen can file the case against Mrs. Arroyo.

“But you have to have evidence,” Planas said.

Malacañang, meantime, said that the statements made by presidential frontrunner Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III about the Ombudsman’s resolution on the NBN controversy appear to be a prejudgment against the President and her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo.

Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar said that Aquino’s desire to have closure on the NBN-ZTE controversy in spite of the fact that the Ombudsman has already issued its resolution is a matter of concern in light of what he has said in the past about wanting to go after Arroyo after she steps down from office.

“If Senator Aquino defines closure to mean nothing less than the guilty verdict that he seems already (to have) prejudged, then I fear for the durability of the legal protections available to everyone under our system once he launches his inquisitions,” Olivar said.

Aquino earlier said that one of his priorities as president would be to create a commission that would look into the allegations against Mrs. Arroyo.

The President and the First Gentleman’s alleged involvement in the NBN-ZTE controversy was one of the issues raised by Aquino in the past and based on what was recommended by the Ombudsman in its resolution on the issue, Aquino said that he did not find total closure yet.

Olivar reiterated that the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, in its own probe into the issue, did not find enough evidence to link the President to the case.

“Senator Aquino should remember that even the Senate inquiry by Senator (Richard) Gordon found no culpability on the part of the President,” Olivar said.

“This time any court proceeding by its nature has to hold accusers to an even higher burden of proof than a Senate inquiry and so he shouldn’t be surprised that the President was excluded from the Ombudsman’s filing,” he added.

Former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos and then National Economic and Development Authority director general and now Social Security System president Romulo Neri will be charged with graft before the Sandiganbayan for their alleged involvement in the controversy-ridden NBN deal with China’s ZTE Corp.