GMA mulling charges vs Noy?

MANILA, Philippines - Former president and now House Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is considering filing criminal charges against one person only – the guy who was responsible for all the charges against her.

“Filing a case has been considered, but I haven’t pursued it. And if I will file a case, I’ll only file against one person,” the Pampanga congresswoman told reporters in a news conference at the House of Representatives yesterday.

A smiling Arroyo, however, refused to disclose the identity of her supposed oppressor.

“I cannot preempt what they will advise until I talk, until I even start discussing my cases with them,” she said, referring to her battery of lawyers.

The administration of her successor, former president Benigno Aquino III, filed two separate non-bailable plunder charges against her – the first in November 2011 where a warrant was issued on the same day and the other in October 2012.

The first was for electoral sabotage that was filed reportedly upon instructions of Aquino, who prevented her from leaving the airport despite the absence of a hold-departure order wherein she was granted bail in October 2012.

In the same month that year, a non-bailable plunder case involving P366 million in Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office intelligence funds was filed against Arroyo on the same day she was supposed to leave the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, where she was under hospital arrest for years.

Both charges have been dismissed by the Supreme Court.

Arroyo is currently supporting a bill that would impose stiffer penalties for unjust imprisonment and even joked that she may only go after one person she did not name, if she were to ever file a case for what she went through. 

“It’s premature to disclose who that one person would be,” she said.

No Cabinet post offered 

Also yesterday, Arroyo denied speculations that President Duterte offered her a position in his Cabinet.

Duterte earlier said he showed Arroyo a list of narco-politicians during their meeting last week, which the former president confirmed. 

However, she denied that Duterte offered her a Cabinet post or the House leadership.

She added that although she remains against the death penalty, she would not argue with Duterte’s stance of reviving capital punishment, specifically for heinous crimes like rape, murder and for drug-related cases.