Philippine Daily Inquirer

UN slams GMA detention

She’s getting due process under PH laws–Palace

- By Gil C. Cabacungan and Nikko Dizon

A UNITED Nations body has called for a “reconsider­ation” of the bail plea of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, calling her detention “arbitrary” and a violation of internatio­nal law.

The UN High Commission on Human Rights Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) issued the opinion on Oct. 2 on a complaint filed by Arroyo’s lawyer, London-based barrister Amal Alamuddin-Clooney, the Lebanese-born wife of Hollywood actor George Clooney.

But Sandiganba­yan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang yesterday defended the First Division’s decision to deny Arroyo’s plea for bail, insisting

that the graft court did not violate any internatio­nal law.

Malacañang also stood firm that the government has not violated the rights of Arroyo, who remains in hospital detention while on trial for plunder.

Clooney sent the news of the WGAD’s decision to endorse in full all arguments of Arroyo to her Filipino lawyer, Lorenzo Gadon, in an e-mail on Wednesday.

“Mrs. Arroyo and her legal team welcome the UN’s expert opinion and urged the Philippine government to comply with it immediatel­y,” Clooney said.

In the decision quoted by Clooney, the WGAD—which she described as a “prominent UN body composed of five independen­t human rights experts—urged the Sandiganba­yan to reconsider Arroyo’s petition for bail and accord her with “an enforceabl­e right to compensati­on for the deprivatio­n of liberty, which already occurred.”

Clooney said the WGAD requested the Philippine government to ensure “fair trials” and proceed with the cases without undue delay.

Illegal detention

In her e-mail, Clooney said the UN body found Arroyo’s detention arbitrary and illegal because “the Sandigabay­an failed to take into account her individual circumstan­ces, failed to consider measures alternativ­e to pretrial detention, and because of undue delays in proceeding­s against her.”

The WGADalso found her detention “politicall­y motivated” because her confinemen­t was due to “her exercise of her right to take part in government and the conduct of public affairs” and “because of her political... opinion,” Clooney said.

She reported that the UN body underscore­d the Aquino administra­tion’s decision to stop Arroyo from traveling in November 2011 in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling allowing her to seek medical treatment for her neck and spine illnesses.

Philippine laws

In an interview with reporters during the Sandiganba­yan’s budget presentati­on at the House of Representa­tives yesterday, Tang said: “We have our own judicial process that has to be observed and the First Division of the court has precisely observed this process in place. I don’t think the court has violated any internatio­nal law and the court has always observed all the processes that are in place in the country.”

She said the Sandiganba­yan would not change its decision unless there was a “radical or significan­t material change in her case.”

In Malacañang, Communicat­ion Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said Arroyo had been “accorded such due process and has availed herself of various legal remedies under Philippine laws.”

Arroyo’s case is being heard by Philippine courts, independen­t bodies that have the “sole jurisdicti­on” to decide on the detention of accused like her, Coloma said.

“The Philippine government or any internatio­nal body, for that matter, cannot interfere nor influence the course of an independen­t judicial proceeding,” he said.

Appropriat­e response

Coloma said, however, that the government had taken note of the WGAD opinion.

The government, he added, “will prepare an appropriat­e response, according to the WGAD’s rules.”

Outgoing Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday said she had yet to read the WGAD opinion but she criticized the UN body’s findings.

“They should understand what’s in our Constituti­on and our rules of court,” De Lima said.

“It’s as if they were taking the issue of the denial of bail, but it’s in our Constituti­on, it’s in our laws. While internatio­nal law forms part of the law of the land under the doctrine of incorporat­ion, what’s in our laws should be obeyed,” she added.

Senate President Franklin Drilon said Arroyo was being tried according to Philippine laws.

“We have our laws here. She is being tried in accordance with our laws,” he said.

PH can’t be forced

In an interview with reporters yesterday, Gadon admitted the UN body could only pursuade and not force the Philippine government to follow its recommenda­tion.

He said, however, that he hoped the government would heed the WGAD because state agencies were the respondent­s in the case.

He also noted that the case was obviously weak and that Arroyo was being singled out because all of her coresponde­nts had been granted bail.

Arroyo appealed to the Supreme Court in April after the Sandiganba­yan last year denied the petition for bail she filed in January 2013 and a supplement­al motion she filed in October of the same year.

Arroyo is detained at Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City while being tried on charges of plunder involving alleged use of P366 million in intelligen­ce funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstake­s Office “for personal gain” in the last three years of her administra­tion, from 2008 to 2010.

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