By CPP Information Bureau
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today lambasted the Aquino regime for standing down to the legal pleadings of Gloria Arroyo to be extended medical and personal privileges and for having so far failed to file more serious criminal charges against her.
The CPP urged the Filipino people to reject the Aquino regime’s steps that accord Gloria Arroyo with privileges and to step up their mass struggles to make Arroyo face charges of plunder and gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law.
“Taking cue from Aquino, government lawyers did not even challenge petitions from Gloria Arroyo’s lawyers to continue her hospital detention and be afforded a three-day furlough from detention to attend the wake of her brother-in-law Ignacio Arroyo, which are typically not extended to ordinary people facing criminal charges,” said the CPP.
“These privileges, however, are only the tip of the iceberg of the favors and legal accomodations being accorded by the Aquino government to Arroyo,” added the CPP. “Almost two years into office, Aquino has yet to file more serious charges of war crimes and gross violations of human rights as well as crimes of plunder against Gloria Arroyo even after having appointed his own ombudsman.”
“Despite all the anti-Arroyo noise being stirred up by Aquino himself, the only thing he can boast of is having filed charges against Arroyo for the relatively minor crime of sabotaging the 2007 elections, which some believe was so crafted that it could easily be defeated in court,” said the CPP.
“There are at least seven complaints of plunder filed against Arroyo, yet not a single plunder case has been filed by the Aquino’s ombudsman.”
The Office of the Ombudsman has so far succeeded only in charging Arroyo over the ZTE Broadband deal, which it even reduced to graft from the original complaint of plunder. Up to now, it has yet to file a single case on gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law despite the preponderance of evidence of her direct responsibility in ordering and carrying out the bloody Oplan Bantay Laya which was marked by a campaign of extrajudicial killings, abductions, torture, illegal arrests and detention, militarization of communities, forcible mass evacuations, violations of childrens’ rights and more brutalities.
“Aquino’s footdragging in charging Gloria Arroyo with high crimes stands in stark contrast to his rush to remove Chief Justice Renato Corona from the Supreme Court,” pointed out the CPP.