GMA camp to file bail petition anew

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines – The camp of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is set to file another petition for bail before the Sandiganbayan after the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found her continued detention arbitrary and illegal under international law.

Lorenzo Gadon, lawyer for Arroyo, said they are planning to file a new petition for bail before the anti-graft court based on the recommendation of the UN body.

In its opinion released on Oct. 2, the five-member UN body urged the Philippine government to reconsider Arroyo’s bail plea “in accordance with the relevant international human rights standards and to accord the former president with an enforceable right to compensation for her continued detention.”

The gist of the UN working group’s opinion was relayed to Gadon by international human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney by e-mail on Oct. 7.

Clooney had filed a human rights violation case against the Philippine government before the UN on behalf of Arroyo.

“The Philippine government will lose face if we will not abide by the internationally accepted principles of law,” Gadon said.

Arroyo’s camp maintained that the former leader should be granted bail while on trial for plunder for alleged misuse of intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

Arroyo is under hospital arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.