Peralta inhibits from SC's Arroyo case review

MANILA, Philippines - Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta has inhibited himself from handling the plunder case of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Arroyo was charged with plunder by the Office of the Ombudsman (Ombudsman) before the Sandiganbayan on the alleged misuse of P366-million intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

The petition for certiorari of Arroyo, along with other petitioners who were charged before the Sandiganbayan, was scheduled last Tuesday for the SC en banc deliberations.

Arroyo and her other co-accused are asking the SC to stop the trial of the plunder case before the Sandiganbayan.

However, when the case was called off during Tuesday's SC en banc session, Peralta immediately informed the court that he is inhibiting himself from the case out of delicadeza.

Perata is the ponente who is supposed to write the decision on the case.

He said that his brother-in-law, Atty. Cornelio Aldon, is the legal counsel of former PCSO Board of Director Raymundo Roquero during the Senate investigation involving the alleged PCSO fund scam.

Roquero is a co-accused in the said criminal case and one of the petitioners before the SC.

He is running for congressman of Antique and a runningmate of Aldon, who is also seeking the gubernatorial post in the same province during the May 13, 2013 mid-term elections.

With this, the SC deferred the case for another session as it raffled the case to another ponente who will replace Peralta.

It can be recalled that Arroyo did not enter any plea during her arraignment before the Sandiganbayan on Oct. 29, 2012 on the charge that she had allegedly plundered P366 million in PCSO funds during her term as president.

The Ombudsman tagged Arroyo and other PCSO and Commission on Audit (COA) officials in the alleged PCSO fund scam between 2008 and 2010.

The SC excluded former COA Region 5 Director Nilda Plaras from being arrested along with Arroyo and eight others accused in the case after the SC issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) in favor of Plaras, the former head of the COA's Intelligence Fund Unit.

The petition of Plaras was filed before the SC on Oct. 19, 2012.

The SC had clarified that the order does not cover Mrs. Arroyo and the other accused.

Mrs. Arroyo had a pending petition for certiorari filed before the high court on Oct. 24, 2012.

The other accused in the plunder case were Rosario Uriarte and Benigno Aguas, former PCSO general manager and assistant general manager, respectively; Sergio Valencia; ex-PCSO chairman; former PCSO board members Manuel "Manoling" Morato, Jose Taruc V, Roquero, and Maria Fatima Valdez; and Reynaldo Villar, former chairman of COA.