Sandiganbayan: Gloria Arroyo cannot leave PHL, must face plunder charges

The Sandiganbayan, the constitutional anti-graft court, has issued a hold departure order (HDO) against former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and nine other persons accused of plunder of P365 million of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) funds.   In filing the case, the Office of the Ombudsman said it observed “a pattern, not only of misuse or raid… but also of illegal conveyance or disposition of cash advances” amounting to P365 million from the PCSO.   The other former officials of the PCSO and the Commission on Audit who were charged with plunder last July 16 and also issued HDOs Tuesday, July 24 are:  

• Sergio Valencia, former PSCO Board chairperson
• Rosario Uriarte, former PSCO General Manager
• Manuel Morato, former PCSO Board member
• Jose Taruc, former PCSO Board member
• Raymundo Roquero, former PCSO Board member
• Ma. Fatima Valdes, former PCSO Board member
• Benigno Aguas, former PCSO budget officer
• Reynaldo Villar, former COA chairperson, and
• Milda Plaras, former COA intelligence officer.

  This is the first plunder case against Mrs. Arroyo since she left the presidency. She is under hospital arrest at Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City on charges of electoral sabotage.   The Ombudsman had also filed graft cases against the ex-President for the botched national broadband deal with Chinese firm ZTE. "Phantom" funds   The plunder case stemmed from a complaint Bayan Muna Representatives Teodoro Casiño and Neri Colmenares filed last year against Mrs. Arroyo and Uriarte.   The lawmakers accused the two officials of diverting and malversing at least P325 million in PCSO funds to “phantom” intelligence funds not subject to regular auditing in 2010.   In their complaint, Casiño and Colmenares also said the amount was “most likely used for partisan electoral purposes" because 2010 was an election year.   In a Senate probe last year, Uriarte said Mrs. Arroyo allowed the release of the PCSO funds. The PCSO official said the money was used for the agency’s nationwide small town lottery project and as blood money for Filipinos who are in Saudi Arabia’s death row.   Under Republic Act 7080, a public official can be charged with plunder if he or she “accumulates or acquires ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt or criminal acts" amounting to at least P75 million.  — with Kimberly Jane Tan/ELR, GMA News