Retired Sandigan justice sees bail for GMA

Retired Sandiganbayan presiding justice Edilberto Sandoval yesterday said he sees no legal impediment for either the antigraft court or the Supreme Court (SC) to grant the bail appeal of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria MacapagalArroyo, saying that the recent Enrile ruling on bail can be cited in the Arroyo case.

Former PJ Edilberto Sandoval, whom Arroyo had bypassed five times from being promoted, said the former President is no longer a flight risk and that her unstable state of health can be a strong ground for her release from nearly four years of hospital detention.

However, Sandoval said an equally forceful argument that would support Arroyo’s bail bid is the fact that the anti-graft court had either released on bail or acquitted most of her alleged coconspirators in the 366-million plunder case filed against her by the Aquino administration.

During the “Usaping Balita News Forum” in Quezon City, Sandoval opined that the antigraft court should serious consider granting the appeal of Arroyo to be placed under house arrest.

Sandoval cited the House of Representatives resolution that expressed the legislative chamber’s sense in supporting the house arrest petition.

Unanimously approved in the Lower House, the resolution authored by 1-BAP Party-list Rep. Silvestre Bello III, a former justice secretary, cited humanitarian reasons to support legislators’ appeal for leniency on the former chief executive.

Reacting on the same issue, Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe, vice chairman of the House Committee on Justice, supported Sandoval’s comment on the house arrest appeal.

“Justice Sandoval was correct when he pointed out that as the house arrest petition should be granted because it is what the Filipino people are asking. We are representatives of the people,” said Batocabe, a member of the Malacañang-backed House majority bloc.