Like the rest of the country, Malaca\u00f1ang was taken aback by the decision of Judge Jesus Mupas of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) granting the petition for bail of former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
\nHowever, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda lost no time in passing the buck to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which filed the case for electoral sabotage against the former President on Nov. 18, 2011.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s Comelec that filed the case, not us,\u201d Lacierda said in a briefing at the Palace.
\nThe Comelec said it would ask Mupas to overturn his ruling.
\n\u201cWe will file a motion for reconsideration if it\u2019s not too late because we know that the order is immediate and executory,\u201d said Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr.
\nHe acknowledged that he was not expecting the decision of the court but expressed confidence that the case would prosper.
\nHe said the \u201csetback\u201d was merely on the bail petition and not on the main case.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s OK. The fight is not over yet. There is still a trial on the merits of the case,\u201d said the Comelec chief.
\nAlso caught off-guard by Mupas\u2019 ruling, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said she would meet with Brillantes and the panel of the Comelec and Department of Justice (DOJ) to discuss the government\u2019s next move.
\n\u201cI\u2019m going to discuss that with Chairman Brillantes and we will see what remedy we can do. Of course we did not expect it. If the bail was granted there\u2019s only one meaning: the judge was not convinced that the evidence was strong. But of course, we disagree. We will look at the basis of his decision and we will take the appropriate remedy,\u201d De Lima told reporters.
\n\u201cWe are of the different view that even if there\u2019s only one witness who pointed at the former President, for us it\u2019s enough. Because when Unas [the government\u2019s lone witness] testified, he really stood pat on his testimony that he himself heard the instruction of the former President to former Governor Ampatuan to rig the 2007 elections,\u201d she said.
\nPCSO plunder case
\nLacierda also invoked the separation of powers between the executive and judiciary to explain the unfortunate turn of events for the 2-year-old Aquino administration, which has made the prosecution of Arroyo the centerpiece of its anticorruption drive.
\nLacierda said the executive branch had no control over the workings of the judiciary.
\nAlthough its most prominent detainee is now out on bail, the Aquino administration still vowed that the \u201cfight against corruption continues.\u201d
\nLacierda cited the plunder case recently filed by the Office of the Ombudsman against Arroyo in the Sandiganbayan in connection with the misuse of P366 million in funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
\n\u201cAnd that\u2019s the reason why there is a PCSO case still in the Sandiganbayan. This will not dampen our resolve to file and to continue to institute corruption cases against responsible officials,\u201d he said.
\nReconsideration
\nHe said the election body could not understand why Mupas of the Pasay RTC Branch 112 granted Arroyo\u2019s petition for bail on the electoral sabotage filed against her involving the senatorial elections in Maguindanao in 2007.
\n\u201cI really don\u2019t get it why Judge Mupas granted the petition when no evidence whatsoever was presented. [Arroyo\u2019s] camp also didn\u2019t even reply or rebut the statements of our witnesses during the bail hearing,\u201d Brillantes said.
\nWhile maintaining that the Comelec has a strong case against Arroyo, allowing her to walk out of hospital detention would somehow \u201cimperil\u201d its bid to make the former President accountable for the allegedly rigged 2007 balloting.
\n\u201cThe judge might be saying that the evidence is weak and so we need to get more,\u201d Brillantes said.
\nLone witness
\nNorie Unas, the election supervisor of Maguindanao during Arroyo\u2019s term, is the Comelec\u2019s main witness.
\nDuring a hearing on Arroyo\u2019s petition for bail last month, Unas claimed that Arroyo had instructed then Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. to deliver a 12-0 vote in Maguindanao in favor of Team Unity senatorial candidates during a meeting in Malaca\u00f1ang two weeks before the elections.
\nHold order
\nThe Senate blue ribbon committee chairman, Teofisto Guingona III, and other senators said they were at least consoled by the fact that when the Office of the Ombudsman lodged the plunder charge against Arroyo et al. in the Sandiganbayan, a hold-departure order (HDO) was immediately issued against the former President.
\nSenator Francis Pangilinan said the HDO would at least assure the people that Arroyo remained in the country to face the charges against her.
\nGuingona agreed, noting Arroyo\u2019s \u201cpropensity to invent reasons to justify her grand plan to leave the country and escape prosecution for her crimes.\u201d
\nThe Sandiganbayan said there was no legal impediment yet that would require Arroyo\u2019s detention.
\n\u201cThere is no conflict since the Sandiganbayan has not issued any warrant of arrest (against her),\u201d Sandiganbayan\u2019s executive clerk of court and spokesperson Renato Bocar said in an interview.
\nHe said a warrant of arrest may be issued only after the determination of probable cause in the pending cases against Arroyo in the Sandiganbayan.
\nBlame game
\nSenator Panfilo Lacson blamed the DOJ and Comelec for the ill-prepared electoral sabotage complaint that he believed forced Mupas to grant bail to Arroyo.
\n\u201cBail posits the existence of a weak electoral sabotage case filed by the DOJ and Comelec. One lesson learned here is\u2014we cannot build up a strong case through press releases and media interviews,\u201d he said.
\nSenator Antonio Trillanes IV also blamed the DOJ for not ensuring the protection of witnesses who could have bolstered the \u201chearsay testimony\u201d of Unas.
\nBut Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, poster boy of the 2007 electoral fraud victims, said he could not blame Mupas for his decision to grant bail.
\n\u201cSince there was only one witness against her, an alleged eyewitness, then the grant of bail means that the judge isn\u2019t convinced that the evidence (against Arroyo) is strong,\u201d Pimentel said.
\n\u201cI respect the judge\u2019s decision and it\u2019s a good sign that the judicial processes are working in our country,\u201d he added.
\nA big slap
\nIn the House of Representatives, Bayan Muna Representative Teodoro Casi\u00f1o said the granting of Arroyo\u2019s petition for bail was \u201ca big slap on the face of President Benigno Aquino, who had been actively campaigning against his predecessor.
\nIn his State of the Nation Address on Monday, Mr. Aquino \u201cboasted of his administration\u2019s efforts to hold Arroyo accountable for her crimes.\u201d
\nFormer President Joseph Estrada criticized the \u201crush\u201d with which the electoral sabotage case against Arroyo had been filed.
\n\u201cThat only goes to show that the prosecution did not study the case very well,\u201d Estrada told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview. <\/p>\n