GMA allowed to spend Christmas in La Vista home

MANILA, Philippines - Former President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo can spend Christmas with her family at her home in La Vista, Quezon City.

The Sandiganbayan granted yesterday the Pampanga lawmaker’s request for a holiday furlough.

Defense counsel Modesto Ticman Jr. told The STAR that Arroyo is very happy with the furlough.

“She considers this her best Christmas gift,” he said.

Laurence Hector Arroyo, another defense counsel, said they are grateful to the court for showing compassion and for granting furlough to their client on humanitarian grounds.

“The court’s decision is wholly consistent with justice,” he said. “We must emphasize, if only to put things in context, that former President Arroyo continues to enjoy the presumption of innocence as there is no judgment to date finding her guilty of any crime.” 

The Sandiganbayan considered a number of factors in granting Arroyo’s request to be allowed to spend the holidays at her home.

Associate Justices Rodolfo Ponferrada, Alex Quiroz and Rafael Lagos said they decided to partially grant Arroyo’s motion for a 12-day furlough from Dec. 23 to Jan. 3 next year.

“After a serious deliberation and considering the afore-cited reasons of accused-movant coupled by the dissenting opinion of herein ponente in accused-movant’s petition for bail in this case ‘that there is no strong evidence that ill-gotten wealth was amassed, accumulated by any of the accused as in fact the existence of such ill-gotten wealth was not clearly established’ and in light of the forthcoming visit of His Holiness Pope Francis, who is the personification of mercy and compassion, over the objection of the prosecution, the court is inclined to partially grant the instant motion by allowing her to celebrate Christmas with her family from Dec. 23 to 26, 2014, at her residence at No. 14 Badjao Street, La Vista, Quezon City,” they said.

The Sandiganbayan said Arroyo may leave the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City at 10 a.m. on Dec. 23 and return on Dec. 26 at 2 p.m.

It tasked the Philippine National Police (PNP) in coordination with court sheriffs to provide adequate security to Arroyo.

She is barred from giving media interviews and ordered to shoulder all expenses to be incurred during the furlough, including the expenses of police escorts and security measures to be implemented.

Lagos made a handwritten note in the decision concurring with the ruling of Ponferrada and Quiroz next to his signature: “My concurrence is based only on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.”

House welcomes decision

Leaders of the House of Representatives welcomed yesterday the Sandiganbayan decision to grant Arroyo Christmas furlough.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said he supported the ruling on humanitarian grounds, owing to Arroyo’s precarious health condition.

Deputy Majority Leader Sherwin Tugna said he believes the decision was based on the merits.

“The anti-graft court has been consistent in its decisions and is a stable bastion of the people’s trust in the judiciary,” he said.       – With Paolo Romero