Prosecution justifies evidence vs Gloria Arroyo in PCSO plunder case

Government prosecutors on Tuesday insisted that the evidence that they had so far presented against former President and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in her plunder case before the Sandiganbayan was compelling.

 

In a six-page opposition paper submitted to the Sandiganbayan Special First Division, the prosecution panel urged the anti-graft court to affirm its earlier ruling junking Arroyo’s demurrer to evidence (a motion to dismiss the charges against the accused on the basis of the prosecution’s weak evidence).

 

“The prosecution was able to establish by clear and direct evidence that accused Arroyo connived with accused Uriarte and Valencia to enable them to ‘amass, accumulate and acquire’ ill-gotten wealth,” the prosecution said.

 

The prosecution was referring to Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) former general manager and board vice chairman Rosario Uriarte and former PCSO board chairman Sergio Valencia, Arroyo's co-accused in the plunder case stemming from the alleged misuse of P366 million in PCSO funds.

 

According to the case filed in July 2012, the sum was reportedly taken from the PCSO’s corporate allocation and was treated as an intelligence fund, thus exempting it from regular audit procedures.

 

In its April 6 ruling, the Special First Division denied Arroyo’s demurrer to evidence, arguing that there was sufficient evidence against her and her co-accused for a full-blown trial.

 

Arroyo filed a motion for reconsideration on April 22, urging the court to reverse its ruling.

 

In her motion for reconsideration, Arroyo, through her legal counsels, said the prosecution failed to establish the conspiracy among her and her co-accused. The former president also claimed that the prosecution’s evidence failed to prove that she and her co-accused “amassed, accumulated and acquired” unexplained wealth through the alleged misuse of the PCSO funds.

 

The prosecution, in its opposition paper, meanwhile contended that Arroyo’s approval of the series of releases of the funds was enough basis for the court to affirm its original ruling.

 

“Accused Arroyo’s OKs in fact resulted in to the release of the funds at various times, at gargantuan amounts and for exactly the same purposes… It is enough that there is a pattern of overt or criminal acts indicative of the unlawful scheme in order to sustain conviction beyond reasonable doubt,” the prosecution said.

 

“It was the matter-of-fact approval of accused Arroyo despite circumstances of patent illegality and irregularity attending each and every one of the requests made that helped accused Uriarte and Valencia to withdraw cash from PCSO’s coffers.”

 

The prosecution also claimed that additional evidence presented by the prosecution during Arroyo’s bail petition hearing proved that the supposed projects for which the cash advances were made did “not in fact exist or are spurious.”

 

The prosecution said these series of fund releases to Uriarte and Valencia for the alleged non-existent projects “clearly and directly establish that accused Uriarte and Valencia amassed, accumulated and acquired ill-gotten wealth”.

 

The prosecution said "all acts subsequent to the requests for additional funds by accused Uriarte to accused Arroyo are but part of a methodical scheme of looting the public treasury.”

 

The court had also denied Arroyo’s bail petition. She has been under hospital arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City since 2012 due to spine-related ailments. — DVM, GMA News