THE Supreme Court has again extended for another 60 days its order suspending the plunder trial of former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo before the Sandiganbayan.
In a three-page resolution, the SC extended until April 20 its status quo ante order halting the proceedings before the Sandiganbayan First Division, in connection with the alleged P366-million Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office fund anomaly. The SQA was supposed to lapse last Feb. 19.
This would mean that the trial against the ailing former leader will remain suspended until the tribunal rules on her bail petition.
It was the second time the SC extended the halt order initially issued in Oct. 20 last year for only 30 days. On Nov. 24, the SC extended the SQA for 90 days or until Feb. 19.
Last December, the SC granted relief to Arroyo in her plea for house arrest while facing plunder trial by approving her plea for a holiday furlough and allowing her to spend Christmas and New Year with her family in their house in La Vista Subdivision in Quezon City.
Arroyo filed a petition with the high court in April 2014 seeking reversal of the final ruling of the Sandiganbayan first division last February denying her bail plea. The office of the solicitor general has not yet answered the petition.
In October last year, the former leader reiterated her plea and asked the high tribunal to now rule on her case as she cited the recent report from the United Nations Technical Working Group on Arbitrary Detention recommending her release from detention.
The UN panel recommended the reconsideration of Mrs. Arroyo’s application for bail “in accordance with the relevant international human rights standards.”
Arroyo argued that the UN panel’s position was consistent with the petition for bail and demurrer to evidence her defense lawyers filed before the Sandiganbayan First Division.
The former president also reiterated her prayer for issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) stopping the proceedings on the plunder case before the anti-graft court.
In her petition, Mrs. Arroyo cited her deteriorating health in asking the high court to reverse the rulings of the Sandiganbayan.
Arroyo said the high court had ruled in many cases that detainees are entitled to bail “if their continuous confinement during the pendency of their case would be injurious to their health or endanger their life.”
Given her condition, the former president pleaded that hospital detention would not suffice for her recovery.
Petitioner invoked the case of De La Rama, where the SC held that hospital arrest “fell short of meeting or accomplishing the humanitarian purpose or reason underlying the doctrine adopted by modern trend of courts’ decisions which permit bail to prisoners, irrespective of the nature and merits of the charge against them, if their continuous confinement during the pendency of their case would be injurious to their health or endanger their life.”
Arroyo has been detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center while standing trial in the non-bailable plunder charge due to her cervical spondylosis, a degenerative disease of the bones andcartilage of the neck.
While government lawyers alleged conspiracy, almost all of Arroyo’s co-accused are either out on bail or had been acquitted of the charges.
