Update on Amal’s defense of Gloria M. Arroyo

I know that a lot of people would like to know what is happening to Amal’s defense of Gloria Arroyo’s human right to a fair trial.

She has been imprisoned in Veterans Memorial Hospital for more than two years now, almost as long as President Aquino has been in power.

Amal came to Manila to be able to speak to her and her lawyers if there was anything she could do to help her if she took up the former president’s case just as she had with Yevtushenko and Assange. Amal works with a law firm that takes up such difficult cases.

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I was in London more than a week ago, to attend a post wedding reception in Danesfield countryside hotel in the Cotswolds. The reception was on October 25.  For the last two columns, I have been writing about the wedding reception at Danesfield. But it was important that I get the documents as quickly as I could to Amal.

When I received the sealed envelope, I was not sure how I could get it to her. But in an email Amal Clooney graciously informed me that if I was coming to the party I could give it to her then. (She has now taken up her husband’s name and is known as Amal Clooney from the Doughty Street Chambers. But with more than 400 guests and a very busy schedule, I was anxious on how I could give the envelope to her.

My daughter and I were billeted in the same hotel where the party was being held. Indeed our room was just around the corner from Amal’s mother, my friend Baria’s room so I was able to give the documents immediately to her. That was a lucky break since I was not sure how I would give the envelope. The law firm was in the City of London and it would have been difficult if I had to be in the party and had to deliver the envelop to the chambers.

Apart from the interruption which came about after her engagement and wedding to Hollywood actor George Clooney, getting hold of documents and transmitting them to London took time. So it was good that Gloria’s lawyers were able to complete the documentation before I left for London and by chance occupied a room in Danesfield close to Baria’s room.

The envelope was sealed but I could guess what the papers were about. At the time, the pending question before Amal’s law firm was focused on the date of the most recent Motion for Bail filed with the court (i.e. the motion that was heard on 10 July 2014)? In informal conversations Amal has always said that “even political enemies have rights and that her task was to defend these human rights when these were violated by sitting governments against political enemies.

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Here were some of the questions being asked by Amal and Katherine O’Bryne (Amal’s assistant in the Doughty Street Chambers law firm) on the question of Arroyo’s continued imprisonment despite the fact that there has been no conviction. Amal’s law firm asked Arroyo’s lawyers (and that was in July 2, 2014) almost three months ago.

“Do you have a copy of the decision of the five-member investigative panel dated March 2012 concluding that there was no factual or legal basis to support the PCSO charge? Your summary document sent to us on 21 July 2014 notes:

“Recently, a copy of the so-called resolution of the first panel of investigators surfaced confirming earlier reports that the first panel dismissed the plunder charge against GMA and her accused.” 

Has that copy made it into your hands?

Arroyo’s lawyers replied “A copy thereof was not officially released to anyone by the Office of the Ombudsman as the same was not approved by the Ombudsman. We are however absolutely certain that  there was such a resolution (Somido Resolution) as a copy of the same was submitted by one of the accused (Rosario Uriarte) with the Sandiganbayan. PGMA has filed a motion for its production sometime in October 2012 but was however rejected. 

The Ombudsman herself, in January 2013, had requested the National Bureau of Investigation to probe the “leakage” or unauthorized release of the Somido Resolution. In the Memorandum of the NBI that embodied its findings thereon, it recommended the filing of criminal and administrative charges  against those who are supposedly responsible therefor. In a few days, we shall be sending you the hard  copy of the NBI’s Memorandum for your enlightenment on the matter.  

Do you have a copy of the decision of the second panel reviewing the findings of the first, which was approved by the Ombudsman on 12 July 2012?

A hard copy of which we shall send to you.

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In your summary document of 21 July 2014, you state that “During the cross-examination in the bail hearings, main witness lawyer  Aleta Tolentino, a member of the PCSO Board of Directors, said they have not determined if  PGMA actually received money from the confidential/intelligence funds (CIF) of the PCSO. ‘We don’t know where the money is. We don’t know where it is. We don’t know where the money went, who saved it,’ Tolentino said in response to the question asked by Sandigan Justice Rodolfo Ponferrada on what evidence did they find to show that the accused in the case acquired ill-gotten wealth, which is one of the important elements of the crime of plunder.”

Do you have any evidence of this statement by Ms Tolentino?  It does not appear in the bail Resolution dated 5 November 2013.  Is there a transcript of the hearing? Alternatively a contemporaneous note by a member of the legal team would be sufficient.

The exchanges between Aleta Tolentino and Justice Ponferrada may be found on pages 79 – 81 on the Transcript of Stenographic Notes (TSN) dated 25 January 2013. Hard copies of the pertinent pages of the TSN  shall be sent to you. 

The hard copies could have been the desired information being requested. Could you please provide citations (and, if possible, hardcopy judgments) of the following two cases: Saviniano v CA and Arias.

Hard copies shall be sent to you.

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Can you clarify whether GMA’s bail position was considered or reviewed on 29 October 2012 when she was arraigned for plea?

Arroyo’s lawyer replied, “No.”

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Meanwhile, as justice takes its time, former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has had to ask the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court for a nine-day furlough to be with her family after the death of a grandson.  That is the  burden of Mrs. Arroyo as a political enemy of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III. Amal Clooney is expected to bring the case before the UN Commission of Human Rights now that the papers required have been completed. Abangan.