Gloria Arroyo, son face plunder raps for botched CamSur projects

A plunder complaint was filed on Tuesday against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her son, Rep. Diosdado Ignacio "Dato" Arroyo, for two botched infrastructure projects in Camarines Sur that supposedly cost the government P676 million. In a 17-page complaint filed before the Office of the Ombudsman, lawyers Robert Guevarra and Renecio Espiritu Jr. accused Mrs. Arroyo of using public funds to boost her son's congressional bid in the second district of Camarines Sur in 2010. "The shameless and unconscionable use of the people's money was done in order to create for then presidential son, Dato Arroyo, a political bailiwick in the province of Camarines Sur. Respondents, by their deliberate, brazen and wanton act, treated public funds as if it were private bank accounts to be dispensed as their royalesque caprice and frivolity see fit," the lawyers said in the complaint. GMA News Online contacted Mrs. Arroyo's spokesperson, Elena Bautista-Horn, for their comment on the complaint, but Horn has yet to respond as of posting time.   The complainants said Mrs. Arroyo earmarked millions of pesos for dam, irrigation and bridge projects in Camarines Sur as a "birthday gift" to her son in 2008, who ran and subsequently won as congressman in the province's second district in 2010. "These projects were rushed in time for respondent Dato Arroyo's re-election bid in 2010... Billions of pesos were spent and wasted as these projects turned out to be economically unviable and damaging  to the lives of the residents and the ecosystem found in the affected communities," the complaint read. The complainants particularly identified the Libmanan-Cabusao Dam Project, which they claimed was "rushed with neither consultation with the affected communities nor adequate study about its adverse effects." The lawyers cited a study from the Ateneo de Naga University's Institute for Environmental Conservation and Research that states the construction of the dam "is not justified" since it may displace residents from Lupi and Sipocot towns. The same study also said that the dam may "destroy irreplaceable ecosystems and livelihoods" in these towns. The complainants also said that the dam project was suspended by the National Irrigation System "due to its social unacceptability." The lawyers also used as basis of their complaint the Skybridge Project linking four areas in Camarines Sur, which supposedly remains incomplete up to this day because the bridges "would have to be constructed on a very soft ground." The complainants said these projects caused "undue injury to the government" and at the same time gave "undue advantage" to Dato Arroyo during the last national elections. The lawyers added that Mrs. Arroyo and her son's actions constitute both plunder and graft and corruption. The former President is currently detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City for a separate plunder case in connection with alleged misuse of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office funds during her incumbency. She is seeking re-election as representative of Pampanga's second district in the May elections. — KBK, GMA News