Image capture of video by TV Patrol via ABS-CBN News Youtube channel - Arroyo said her detention was unjust
- She said political prosecution must be stopped and she hopes to be its last victim
- She said the process should be fair in prosecuting political figures
A few days after she was released from hospital arrest at Veterans Medical Memorial Center in Quezon City, Second District of Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said that political prosecution must be stopped.
In an interview with ABS-CBN News at her house in La Vista Subdivision in Quezon City, the former president recalled what happened to her and what she learned from her experience
“To begin with, the detention itself was unjust. So to me, that’s the most important thing. And what I learned from that, this whole thing of political power, to prosecute political enemies, that must stop,” she said.
However, she emphasized that she doesn’t wish her political enemies to experience what she had gone through and added that she hopes to be the last victim of political prosecution.
“I must be the last victim . Let me be the last victim,” she said.
She clarified that she didn’t mean political figures should be exempted from prosecution, but the process should be fair.
The SC has acquitted Arroyo of plunder charges stemming from anomalies in the P366-million Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office confidential and intelligence funds during her term as the Philippine president.
Sitting en banc on Tuesday, July 19, 2016, the SC voted 11-4 to grant Arroyo’s motion demurrer to evidence and junk the Sandiganbayan’s ruling which set the motion for Arroyo’s trial.
In granting the former president’s motion, the SC deemed that the evidence against her are weak.
Arroyo’s camp believes that the decision of the SC only proves that the case of the former president is politically motivated.
According to an article published by Philippine Star, Ferdinand Topacio, the legal spokesman of former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, said that in a statement: “The Supreme Court has once again proven itself to be the final bastion of justice and the rule of law.
Its ruling today has validated what we have been saying for six years now: that the charges against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are nothing more than disingenuous attempts at political persecution by a corrupt and inept Aquino administration intent on covering up its gross lack of accomplishments by harassing its political opponents.”
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