'GMA can run again but cannot campaign'

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Sixto Brillantes said yesterday that former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo can still run in the 2013 mid-terms polls because she has not been convicted of any crime.

However, Brillantes stressed that Arroyo cannot campaign since she is under hospital arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.

“She (Arroyo) can run again as long as she is not yet convicted and she does not transfer registration (to Quezon City). She cannot campaign since she is under hospital arrest,” explained Brillantes, in case Arroyo wants to seek re-election as Pampanga congresswoman.

The poll chief said the same thing happened in the case of former Zamboanga del Norte Rep. Romeo Jalosjos, who was elected congressman despite the rape case against him.

Arroyo is under hospital arrest while facing electoral sabotage charges before the Pasay City regional trial court for allegedly rigging the 2007 polls in Maguindanao.

Last Thursday, the court rejected Arroyo’s petition for her biometrics data to be taken by the Comelec at the hospital.

But this will not stop Arroyo from casting her vote in next year’s elections, as biometrics is not a requirement for voting.

With biometrics, the Comelec takes a voter’s data like digital photograph, signature and fingerprints using data capturing machines.

The data will then be cross-checked to identify those with double or multiple registration.

Separate trials

Meanwhile, Arroyo’s legal team insisted that their client has a right to separate trials for three separate cases filed against her by the Office of the Ombudsman in relation to the national broadband network (NBN) deal anomaly.

Defense counsels led by Estelito Mendoza argued in open court that consolidating the two graft charges and the third separate complaint for alleged violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees would violate the former president’s rights.

Arroyo’s lawyers earlier filed a motion to disallow the consolidation of the cases filed by the Office of the Ombudsman, noting that although all supposedly arose from the NBN deal, the allegations and circumstances surrounding each were different.

Sandiganbayan Fourth Division chairman Gregory Ong, after hearing Mendoza’s arguments, gave government prosecutors 10 days to file an opposition and the defense another 10 days to further respond.

The anti-graft court gave the prosecution and the defense the same amount of time insofar as the separate motion filed by Arroyo’s lawyers for the production of evidence against the accused is concerned.

Mendoza said that the prosecution’s cause should be “not to convict but to ferret out the truth,” adding that if government lawyers have statements which are favorable or unfavorable to the accused, the latter should know so that the accused may properly prepare for trial.

In a related story, Commission on Elections (Comelec) prosecutor Maria Juana Valesa confirmed that she had asked election officers in Maguindanao to execute new affidavits that would point to alleged tampering of votes during the 2007 midterm elections.

Valesa, in a text message to The STAR, confirmed that Ampatuan town election officer Jeenan Nur and other election officers were called to a meeting in Davao City to shed light on the rigging of elections.

“The election officers voluntarily narrated to us what they knew and we helped in preparing their affidavits, which were executed in Davao City,” she said. – With Perseus Echeminada