FORMER President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has said her successor Benigno Aquino III is not subjected to persecution and is instead being given fair treatment in the investigation of the cases against him by the Duterte administration.
Arroyo, now a member of the House oif Representatives representing her district in Pampanga, in a speech at the 4th General Assembly of the Association of Retired RTC Judges of the Philippines at the Manila Hotel last Saturday, said Aquino was being treated fairly, adding, “I am not saying that political figures should be immune from prosecution, but I’m saying that the process should be fair and even-handed—as I believe the cases against Noynoy Aquino and his allies now are undergoing a fair and even-handed due process.”
Arroyo said she was grateful to President Rodrigo Duterte for “providing the enabling environment that freed the judiciary from the reign of fear.”
Arroyo talked about how the past”•Aquino”•administration set the stage for her conviction before Aquino would step down from office.
Quoting a newspaper report, Arroyo said Aquino was “set to appoint a Sandiganbayan magistrate to the SC as a reward for the conviction of Arroyo” but it failed to materialize because “the high court intervened and issued a status quo ante order in October last year (2015) stopping the proceedings….”
Arroyo said her political persecution continued despite an opinion released in October 2015 by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that her detention was arbitrary and in violation of her human rights.
The international human rights body urged the government to free Arroyo from detention, but the Aquino administration rejected the call.
She then thanked the Supreme Court for granting her Demurrer to Evidence which, according to legal experts, is tantamount to an acquittal on a vote of 11-4.
She noted that of the 11 justices who voted to acquit her, three were Aquino appointees which, in her opinion, “reflects the strength of the argument that I was innocent of the charges filed against me.”
She said she does not hold any personal grudge against her political enemies but had misgivings about how the justice system was used for political persecution.
She said it should stop and it should end with her.
“Many ask how I feel about the persecution I underwent. Any rancor I have is not personal. My rancor is more against the whole system of persecution using the justice system. I don’t wish what happened to me (to happen) on my worst enemy. The whole thing of using political power to persecute political enemies using the justice system must stop. Let me be the last victim,” Arroyo said.
She then enumerated some of the laws enacted during her administration that improved the salaries and working conditions in the justice system such as RA 9227 which increased salaries and other benefits of judges; RA 9279 which increased the take home pay of our prosecutors and state counsels through special allowances; RA. 9282 which created the Court of Tax Appeals which had a special jurisdiction and wider membership; and RA 9285 which “institutionalized one of my personal advocacies, mediation as an alternative means of dispute resolution.”
Before she stepped down in 2010, Arroyo said she signed RA 9946 which granted additional retirement, survivorship and other benefits to members of the judiciary “(a)s my farewell tribute to our judges because you lay your lives on the line as you protect the disposition of justice and the integrity of our courts.”
