Ombudsman appeals dismissal of Arroyo cases
Rep. and former Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo arrives. INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON
Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may have basked in a series of legal vindications recently, but the Office of the Ombudsman has continued to fight the dismissal of the last two graft charges against her over the scuttled $329-million national broadband network project.
The Ombudsman’s Office of the Special Prosecutor filed last week two motions appealing the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division’s Aug. 8 and Aug. 25 resolutions that granted Arroyo’s demurrer and threw out the charges midway through the trial due to insufficient evidence.
The Fourth Division said in its resolutions that prosecutors failed to show that Arroyo acted out of personal interest in order to hold her liable for corrupt practices under Section 3 (i) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
But in a 13-page motion, state prosecutors said they found it “mind-boggling” that the court invoked the presumption of regularity and good faith despite the glaring anomalies attending the allegedly graft-ridden deal with China’s ZTE Corp.
Prosecutors also objected to the court’s declaration that public bidding is not necessary since it is the Chinese government that will fund the NBN project. —Vince F. Nonato
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