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What pushed him to make the statement?
“In a statement titled ‘A Call for Justice, Mercy and Compassion,’ Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles said the anti-graft court should set aside political pressure and just free detained former President and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,” reports Paolo Romero in The Philippine Star.
Arguelles wrote: “We appeal to them (Sandiganbayan justices) to weigh the issues wisely and impartially, with no regard for partisan pressure of any kind, especially if that pressure carries the full might of the state against a solitary individual.”
He also added, “This obsessive anger explains why the President (Noynoy Aquino) went so far as to defy the Supreme Court no less, three years ago, when he prevented Mrs. Arroyo from seeking medical treatment abroad for a life-threatening condition: the intrusion of a misplaced metal plate behind her neck into her breathing and eating tubes.”
The report recalled that Arroyo, who is suffering from a degenerative bone disease, is “detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City on allegations that she led a conspiracy to pocket confidential funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).”
Along with Arroyo, former PCSO officials Sergio Valencia, Rosario Uriarte, Manuel Morato, Raymundo Roquero, Fatima Valdes, Jose Taruc, Benigno Aguas, and former Commission on Audit (COA) chairman Reynaldo Villar and COA official Nilda Plaras were also charged with plunder.
Arguelles noted that “the Sandiganbayan granted bail to Arroyo’s co-accused as the evidence against them was not strong while Arroyo, who merely approved the allocation as required of her by law being then the president, was kept in detention.”
Photo: News clip
