Short-lived freedom?
Former President Gloria Arroyo has been granted by the Pasay City judge0 bail, stemming from the electoral sabotage case filed by the poll body, which bespeaks, at this point, a budding independence of the lower court, considering the position of Noynoy Aquino who wants her jailed throughout his term.
But even as Malacañang claimed it respects the decision of the court in the granting of bail, the vindictiveness of Noynoy was still evident, as Edwin Lacierda, who speaks for Noynoy, immediately reacted by saying that she is still not out of the woods — or jail — since there is as yet a pending plunder case against her before the Sandiganbayan.
What this clearly shows is that cases after cases are being filed against Gloria, which seemingly are not backed by strong evidence, just to ensure that she continues her stay in detention, which speaks of continued presidential vindictiveness.
What is not being realized is that even the so-called non-bailable offenses are bailable, if the evidence against the accused is not strong. Apparently, the evidence against her was very weak.
Evidently, with the way Noynoy has been ordering the filing of cases against Gloria and his political foes, it is pretty clear, given the timing of the filing of cases, that the idea is to ensure that his political foe stays in detention forever.
This was the reason Noynoy, through his Justice chief, Leila de Lima, who now wants to be the chief justice, defied the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order against her unconstitutional hold departure order (HDO) against Gloria, which TRO allowed her to leave the country for medical reasons.
That defiance of Noynoy and De Lima was done precisely to stop her from leaving the country, to give them time to rush a non-bailable electoral sabotage case against her.
It was that rush to jail her that probably caused the granting of bail to Gloria. There was no strong evidence presented against her on this specific charge.
As bail hearings were ongoing, with the possibility of Gloria being granted bail, since the Palace certainly knew that the rush job it did on the electoral sabotage case wouldn’t stand in court, Noynoy and his yellow Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) quickly put together a plunder case against Gloria.
Not surprisingly, Noynoy’s Ombudsman, Conchita Carpio-Morales, quickly filed the plunder case against Gloria, which may not hold up either, considering that the Commission on Audit had already cleared those PSCO disbursements, apart from the fact that in plunder, what has to be proven is that the accused personally benefited from the alleged plunder.
In this particular instance, the monies, as receipted, went directly to different departments, among them, the Department of Foreign Affairs, used for blood money to save some OFWs or for the Philippine military contingent.
But apparently, the idea again of Noynoy and his subservient Ombudsman, was to keep her in detention, and they filed the plunder case quickly to ensure that Gloria won’t have a taste of freedom.
Even as Gloria has been granted bail on the electoral sabotage case, and presumably is free to get out of her hospital detention, there awaits an HDO by the Sandiganbayan court, although no arrest warrant has yet been issued by the same court.
Still, if Gloria does seek permission from the court to have the HDO lifted, that would be going through a legal process, which is normal — unless of course the Sandiganbayan court quickly decides to issue an arrest warrant for Gloria, which would not look too good for that judicial branch, as it would seem that the court would be issuing an arrest warrant on orders of Noynoy, the consequence of which would be yet another display of judicial subservience to Malacañang.
No doubt, if Gloria, granted her temporary liberty, wants to leave the country for medical reasons, Noynoy and his allies would move fast to file another case against her.
Either that, or pressure would be applied on the Sandiganbayan to order her arrest and detention.
That’s how vindictive Noynoy is.
That vindictiveness, however, may well be his ruin.
0 comments:
Post a Comment