At least five aspirants for the presidency in the 2010 elections said Tuesday they won’t hesitate to prosecute incumbent President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo if there is evidence showing she amassed ill-gotten wealth while in power.Administration Sen. Richard Gordon said that should a case of wrongdoing be filed against Arroyo, he will make sure that the proper course of justice would flow unhindered.
“I would not finger a particular person. For that matter, I think it is important that all of us make sure that we have responsibility for creating people like President Arroyo if she indeed is guilty of crimes as we are already saying she is," he said during a leaders forum of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (Focap) in Makati.
“It is important, when somebody is corrupt, you must put him in jail. There must be firm, fair, purposeful leadership. There could be no room for anything of that sort where people get away with crimes. I would certainly not appoint an Ombudsman who is my wife's classmate, and certainly to make sure that the ombudsman does his job," said Gordon.
Also participating in the forum, apart from Gordon, were Sen. Francis Escudero, former President Joseph Estrada, environmentalist Nick Perlas, and Olongapo City Councilor John Carlos Delos Reyes.
Escudero said he believes that once an order to file an information for a non-bailable offense is issued against Mrs. Arroyo or once she is convicted by final judgment, the next president must simply do his or her job to implement the order.
Corruption was the top issue in the forum, with panelists noting that the government of Arroyo'spresidency has been marred by a string of corruption cases and scandals such as the ZTE-National Broadband scandal.
High corruption levels and unsound business policies of the government were pointed out to have placed the Philippines in the list of world’s most corrupt countries unsuitable for foreign investments.
In his reaction, Escudero noted that the level of corruption of Arroyo’s administration and the inability of the current government to address poverty and corruption has indeed hampered efforts to implement the Millennium Development Goals, eight time-bound goals aimed at significantly reducing, if not completely eradicating, extreme poverty by 2015.
Estrada said he was all for punishing crooks in government but stressed that Arroyo should not be singled out.
“All those crooks in the government should be given due process and certainty of punishment," said Estrada, who maintained that he was the victim of a conspiracy by the elite members of Philippine society.
After being forced to resign half-way through his six-year term in 2001, Estrada was prosecuted for plunder, after which he was found guilty and sentenced by more than 30 years imprisonment by the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court in 2007.
Immediately after his sentencing, however, President Arroyo granted him full pardon, sparing him the ignominy of serving time at the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa.
Critics have said Mrs. Arroyo pardoned Estrada so that should her turn to be prosecuted comes, the next president could also pardon her.
Nicanor Perlas said he would not hesitate to pursue a case against Mrs. Arroyo if he is elected president.
“Im on record as saying that if the evidence is there, and there's a prima facie evidence, I would prosecute and try to put arroyo in jail because there are a lot of unfinished questions that hang around her legitimacy and I would not be hesitant to actually pursue a case against her," he said.
Delos Reyes said he would let matters take its due course once a case is filed against Arroyo, but will ensure that she will face prosecution if there is reason to believe that she is involved in corruption. - GMANews.TV
Source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/175147/presidential-aspirants-vow-to-prosecute-arroyo-for-graft-if-theres-proof
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