GMA asks SC to stop plunder trial over PCSO

Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is asking the Supreme Court to stop the Sandiganbayan from proceeding with the hearings on her alleged involvement in the P366-million Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office fund anomaly.

Her lawyer Estelito Mendoza told reporters he filed the motion last Feb. 4.

Last Nov. 25, the SC extended its status quo ante order stopping the plunder trial of the Pampanga lawmaker before the Sandiganbayan’s First Division.

The new order extended for 90 days the original 30-day stay issued last Oct. 20 and which had lapsed on Nov. 20 last year. The extended order lapsed yesterday. The SC decided to extend the halt order to allow the justices to decide on the merits of the case without the Sandiganbayan proceeding further with the trial.

Mendoza said the motion asking the SC to issue a TRO or to have the status quo ante order again extended for 60 days or until April 19, after its lapse yesterday, would enable Arroyo to receive evidence for her defense.

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 and cartilage of the neck.

Prosecutors have alleged conspiracy, but almost all of Arroyo’s co-accused are either out on bail or had been acquitted.