Sandigan allows Mike A to travel to Japan, Hong Kong

MANILA, Philippines - The Sandiganbayan has granted former first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo’s request to travel abroad.

In a two-page resolution, the Sandiganbayan’s 4th Division allowed Arroyo to travel abroad to Japan and Hong Kong subject to certain conditions.

The anti-graft court asked Arroyo for a deposit of P90,000 that will serve as travel bond to guarantee faithful compliance of the conditions imposed on him.

The conditions include that Arroyo should not leave the country earlier than June 16 and should be back not later than June 23, 2012, and the travel should only cover Japan and Hong Kong.

The resolution said that “five days after his (Arroyo) return, he must personally present himself to the Division Clerk of Court together with his passport and photocopies of pages showing stamps of his departure and arrival in the country.”

If Arroyo failed to leave, he should within five days of his expected return, “present himself to the Division Clerk of Court together with his passport showing that there was no record of departure and arrival in the country” within the period.

Arroyo filed a motion asking the Sandiganbayan to allow him to fly to Edogawa-Ku, Tokyo, Japan for a meeting with the Filipino community there from June 16 to 21.

The invitation came from businesswoman Evelyn Prieto-Solis.

Arroyo added that after his visit to Japan, he would proceed to Hong Kong to attend to business matters related to their family corporation.

This was not the first time Solis invited Arroyo. The Sandiganbayan earlier granted Arroyo’s request to travel on the first invitation from April 29 to May 14.

According to the second invitation letter attached to the motion to travel, Arroyo would be sought for his “invaluable insights during the previous talk (which) generated immense impact on the overseas Filipino workers residing in this part of Japan.”

However, the Ombudsman did not buy this and countered that there is no extreme urgency or necessity on Arroyo’s requested travel.

The Arroyos are named co-defendants in a graft case along with former transportation secretary Leandro Mendoza and former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos in connection with the scrapped $329-million national broadband network project awarded to China’s ZTE Inc.

All four have been arraigned and pleaded not guilty to the charges, although trial has yet to start.

Arroyo also faces charges of graft over the sale of second-hand helicopters to the Philippine National Police that he allegedly passed off as brand new.

Arroyo personally appeared before the Sandiganbayan’s 2nd Division yesterday and posted a P30,000 bail for his graft case.

The court, however, had a hold departure order (HDO) against Arroyo last June 8, 2012 in connection with the case.

Clerk of court of Second Division Jame Cabrera said the HDO was issued in connection with the graft case naming Arroyo as one of 22 defendants in the helicopter sale case.

“Under the rules, Mr. Arroyo has to file another motion for leave to travel abroad. He also has to be conditionally arraigned before he can be allowed to leave the country,” Cabrera said.

Last Wednesday, Arroyo was indicted along with Manila Aerospace Products Trading Corp. president Hilario de Vera and 20 retired and active police officers led by former PNP chief Jesus Verzosa and former PNP Deputy Director General for Operations Jefferson Soriano.

They were accused of conspiracy in the fraudulent sale of three second-hand helicopters to the PNP and passed them off as brand new at P34.63 million in separate transactions, first in 2009 and in the following year.