Sandiganbayan won't issue arrest order vs Gloria

MANILA, Philippines - The anti-graft court on Friday ruled that it will not issue an arrest order against former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pending resolution of a motion for reconsideration on the Office of the Ombudsman's resolution finding probable cause to indict the former president for plunder.

The Sandiganbayan's First Division said in a six-page ruling that it could not rule on the petition of the government to order the arrest of Arroyo pending its resolution to the motion for reconsideration of the former president's camp.

"The Ombudsman is hereby ordered to resolve the said motions with dispatch," the ruling said.

Government lawyers headed by Diosdado Calonge have urged the anti-graft court to immediately order the arrest of Arroyo and nine others, including former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager and vice chairman Rosario Uriarte and former Commission on Audit (COA) chair Reynaldo Villar, who have been charged with plunder for the alleged misuse of PCSO funds.

The urgent motion was filed during the first day of hearings on the plunder case on Thursday, a day after Mrs.Arroyo was released from hospital detention after posting a P1 million bail bond.

Mrs. Arroyo was ordered arrested last December for her alleged involvement in the massive cheating in the 2007 mid-term elections.

The Pasay City Regional Trial Court Branch 112 handling the electoral sabotage case allowed her to post bail, citing that the evidence presented by the prosecution against the president is weak.

The Commission on Elections has filed a motion for reconsideration on the local court's decision.

Mrs. Arroyo on Friday went to Lubao, Pampanga to meet her constituents. It would be her first visit to her home province since she was ordered detained by the same local court last year.

Before proceeding to Pampanga, the former president visited her parents' tomb at the Libingan ng mga Bayani and made a trip to the Veterans' Memorial Medical Center for a checkup after experiencing leg pains on Thursday night.- Dennis Carcamo