Pasay City court junks electoral sabotage case vs. Arroyo

The Pasay City Regional Trial Court has dismissed the electoral sabotage case against Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in connection with the mid-term elections in 2007, when she was president.

Her lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, confirmed that the case had been dismissed.In a December 17 order, Judge Jesus Mupas of the Pasay RTC Branch 112 granted Arroyo's demurrer to evidence, a pleading that attacks the sufficiency of the prosecution's evidence to sustain a guilty verdict.

This means the case was dismissed before Arroyo's turn to present evidence in her defense.

The judge also ordered that Arroyo's P1-million bail bond be released to her.

Filed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in 2011, the electoral sabotage case accused the former president of personally instructing the late Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan, Sr., to ensure the victory of the "Team Unity" senatorial slate in the province.

During the the seven-year trial, the prosecution presented 13 witnesses, but only one, then provincial administrator Norie Unas, mentioned Arroyo's name in his testimony, the court said.

Being "uncorroborated by another witness" nor "proven by independent documentary evidence," Unas' testimony failed to pin down the former president.

The lack of witnesses mentioning Arroyo and producing documents connecting her to the alleged crime proved "fatal" to the prosecution's case, the judge wrote.

"In the case of accused Arroyo, there is no showing that she committed any overt acts towards the commission of electoral sabotage, nor did she directly participate therein, or even exerted moral ascendancy over her co-accused to commit the crime," the ruling stated.

Unas was also a "co-conspirator" in the conspiracy to commit electoral sabotage, the court said, adding that his testimony was "tainted with doubt" because it was a condition for his earning immunity under the government's Witness Protection Program.

Additionally, even the alleged act of personally instructing Ampatuan to ensure the election win "cannot constitute the crime of 'electoral sabotage,'" the judge decided.

He observed that the charge against Arroyo does not say how she allegedly wanted Ampatuan to secure the victory.

"There is no allegation in the Information that accused Arroyo ordered, or even suggested, that election documents be tampered with, or that votes for any candidate be increased or decreased," he wrote.

"This defect cannot be remedied by any testimonial evidence without violating the Constitutional rights of the accused."

According to Topacio, Arroyo no longer faces any court case.

In 2016, the Supreme Court acquitted her of plunder in connection with the alleged misuse of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office funds. In the same year, the Sandiganbayan cleared her of graft charges over the NBN-ZTE deal.

The High Court decision became final last year. —NB, GMA News