Defense lawyer says Arroyo no ordinary witness

MANILA, Philippines—Now that she is no longer covered by executive privilege, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is invoking her constitutional right as an accused to remain silent on the scuttled $329-million contract with China.

Representative Arroyo Monday told the Sandiganbayan that she could not be considered an “ordinary witness” in the graft case against her former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri in the project to electronically connect the country’s bureaucracy.

Estelito Mendoza, the former President’s lawyer, submitted a memo to the anti-graft court seeking to quash a subpoena directing his client to testify against Neri in the National Broadband Network (NBN) project with China’s ZTE Corp. during her presidency.
Arroyo, who now represents her Pampanga hometown in the House of Representatives, said that because she was also being investigated in the NBN-ZTE deal, she was qualified to keep her silence on related matters in any venue.

“For all intents and purposes,” Mendoza said, Arroyo is an “accused person.”

“Her right to remain silent, in any venue, is absolute, and this cannot be taken against her,” he said, adding that “as long as she is being investigated for the same matter, [she] can never be an ‘ordinary witness.’”

Neri had refused to testify during the Senate hearings on the NBN-ZTE contract on his conversations with President Arroyo, invoking executive privilege. Neri’s position was subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court.

Right to remain silent

In Mendoza’s memo, Arroyo also contested the prosecution’s position that only an accused may refuse to take the witness stand. She said any person under investigation, custodial or otherwise, has the right to remain silent.

“One simply cannot be called to testify in a case simply because he or she is not the main respondent when he or she is also being investigated on the same matter, albeit in a different venue. This would be a mockery of the constitutional right to remain silent,” she said.

The prosecution’s statement during an earlier hearing that her statements would not be used against her in other proceedings also supports her point that she is indeed under investigation for the NBN deal, Arroyo said.

She said that the prosecutor did not have the authority to grant her immunity. She further said that she did not want to delay the hearing on Neri’s case, but added that she was prepared to protect her constitutional right.

The prosecution, which had listed Arroyo as its first witness in Neri’s case, earlier disputed her motion to quash the subpoena, saying that the Pampanga representative possessed all the qualifications to be a witness, and none of the disqualifications.

Ordinary witness

The prosecution pointed out that Arroyo was not an accused in Neri’s graft case, and, as an “ordinary witness,” she must take the witness stand.

She could invoke her right against self-incrimination after each question is asked, it added.

The prosecution also said that in asking Arroyo to take the stand, it just wanted to ask her about her term as chair of the National Economic Development Authority during the time that Neri was its director general.

Neri has been charged with violation of the anti-graft law for conferring with then Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. on the NBN deal, although Abalos was not supposed to be involved in the project, and for meeting with ZTE officials when the project was under assessment.

Testimony during the Senate hearings implicated Arroyo’s husband, then First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, in the deal. The Arroyo couple have denied any wrongdoing.

Lelia Salaverria, Phil. Daily Inquirer