Gloria Arroyo rearrested on plunder charges

MANILA, Philippines - Former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was rearrested Thursday afternoon on plunder charges in connection with the alleged misuse of P316-million funds from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

"Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is now under arrest and in detention, under the custody of the Philippine National Police," Senior Superintendent Joel Coronel of the Philippine National Police's Criminal Investigation Group, announced.

Coronel said that his team served the arrest order on Mrs. Arroyo at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City at around 4 p.m.

He said that they have decided to allow the former president at the VMMC, where she will stay overnight, as she was diagnosed as suffering from "hypertension and dehydration" and government doctors advised that she "transfer or physical movement of patient is not feasible."

Chief Superintendent Mario dela Vega, director of the Quezon City Police District Office, said that Mrs. Arroyo was "booked" at the VMMC. He said that the former president is now a "patient-detainee" at the VMMC's presidential suite.

Coronel said that the booking process was witnessed by Mrs. Arroyo's close aide, Elena Bautista-Horn, and lawyer Raul Lambino.

The police immediately served the warrant of arrest on Arroyo after the Sandiganbayan First Division denied her lawyers' motion to defer the implementation of the order pending a review of on the probable cause to include her as respondent in the plunder case.

The Sandiganbayan said earlier that it is deferring the implementation of the arrest order as its justices were still reviewing if there is probable cause to charge Arroyo with plunder based on the pieces of evidence that the Office of the Ombudsman presented against the former president.

The arrest order against Arroyo was issued nearly three months after a local court in Pasay City allowed her to post a P1-million bail in connection with her election sabotage case.

The former president is also accused of having involvement in the rigging of results of the 2007 senatorial elections in Mindanao.

Also ordered arrested for plunder were former PCSO chairman Sergio Valencia, former PCSO vice chairman and general manager Rosario Uriarte, former members of the PCSO board of directors Manuel Morato, Jose R. Taruc V, Raymundo T. Roquero, and Ma. Fatima Valdes, former PCSO budgets and accounts manager Benigno Aguas, former Commission on Audit chairman Reynaldo Villar, and former head of COA's intelligence/confidential fund audit unit Nilda Plaras.

The Bureau of Immigration has said that Taruc is currently out of the country. It said that Taruc left the country on board a Cathay Pacific flight last July 19. The former PCSO official's destination was unknown.

Director Samuel Pagdilao, chief of the Philippine National Police-CIDG, said that at least three of the other accused have told the authorities that they are willing to surrender.

Pagdilao said that several teams have been deployed to implement the arrest orders against the other accused in the plunder case.