Sandiganbayan allows Mike Arroyo to leave for Japan

The Sandiganbayan on Wednesday allowed former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo to travel to Japan to meet with prospective Japanese investors.

 

Arroyo was allowed by the anti-graft court's Fourth Division to leave from May 3 to 10, according to a report by radio dzBB's Allan Gatus.

 

He will go to Japan to meet with prospective investors then proceed to Hong Kong for a brief rest before returning to the Philippines, the dzBB report added.

 

Edna Batacan, Atty. Arroyo's lawyer, said the former First Gentleman's Japan trip was upon the invitation of a group eyeing investments in hydroelectric power in the Philippines.

 

"We assured the court he's coming back after a week to face the charges against him," she said in an interview on dzBB.

 

Earlier, the Ombudsman asked the Sandiganbayan to junk the former First Gentleman's request to travel abroad for absence of specific purpose and urgency.

 

It cited the graft case currently pending against the former First Gentleman, who with former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had been arraigned over the $329.48-million botched national broadband project with Chinese firm ZTE Corp.

 

The Arroyo couple, with former Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos, had pleaded not guilty to the graft charges earlier this month. — RSJ, GMA News