Lawmakers urged not to meddle in GMA issue

MANILA, Philippines - House Majority Leader and Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales urged yesterday his colleagues to stop making moves that tend to interfere in the criminal cases of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and in the process drag the chamber into the fray.

Gonzales said the House should now focus on pressing legislative work because Arroyo has settled in at the Veterans’ Memorial Medical Center and the Pasay Regional Trial Court has already taken cognizance of her case.

“I appeal to our good colleagues to spare the House from being dragged into these cases or even try to influence the judicial processes involving her,” he said.

He noted that the opposition bloc in the chamber filed a resolution seeking a “house arrest” for Arroyo while others were seeking to file other measures backing the prosecution of the lawmaker.

“I would not be surprised if one of these days a resolution would be filed ‘expressing the sense of the House of Representatives’ that she is guilty of all the charges filed against her or a resolution finding her innocent,” Gonzales said.

He said the chamber has many pending socio-economic and anti-corruption measures that need approval soonest and distractions could only further delay the passage of such measures.