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The former lawyer of Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo on
Wednesday said that Sen. Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal, who is
facing a falsification case, has no immunity from arrest.
In his six-page comment filed
before the Pasay City Prosecutors Office, Lawyer Jesus Santos said
that Madrigal could not invoke her parliamentary immunity because
the criminal case filed against her is punishable by more than six
years.
“It is well to note that the
privilege from arrest applies only to offenses punishable by not
more than six years. It does not apply to those offenses which are
punishable by more than six years,” Santos said in response to the
motion to dismiss Madrigal filed last week.
Santos has sued Madrigal for
allegedly falsifying a photocopied letter from then National
Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Rodolfo Neri,
supposedly to implicate the husband of President Gloria Arroyo in
the scandal-marred national broadband contract.
The letter, dated March 29, 2007,
was addressed to Chinese ambassador Li Jinjun and bore the alleged
notation “FG,” which Madrigal said means First Gentleman,
referring to Mr. Arroyo.
Santos said the senator is not
covered by parliamentary immunity accorded to members of Congress
under the 1987 Constitution, since falsification has a corresponding
jail term of 10 to 12 years.
Madrigal, in her 18-page motion
to dismiss, cited Section 11, Article 6 of the 1987 Constitution
that guarantees immunity from arrest to senators charged with crimes
punishable by not more than six years.
She said the immunity from arrest
is “intended to ensure representation of the constituents of the
member of Congress by preventing attempts to keep a senator or
member of the House of Representatives from attending its
sessions.”
As a senator, Madrigal added, she
also enjoys the privilege of speech, and that she presented the
subject letter in the Senate hearing while discharging her duties as
a duly elected senator.
As to Madrigal’s claim that she
showed the subject letter during a Senate hearing for the purpose of
clarifying only the role of the Mr. Arroyo in the broadband
controversy, Santos said the senator already passed judgment on the
President’s husband.
“There was already judgment on
her part even before the words First Gentleman could be heard. She
twisted the initials ‘FGI/PIS’ to First Gentleman to suit her
agenda,” Santos stressed.
In its press statement issued on
February 27, the NEDA said that what appeared in the letter was
“copy for FGI/PIS,” which stands for Florante G. Igtiben, while
PIS meant Public Investment Staff of the agency.
Igtiben, the agency explained, is
the chief of the Asia Pacific Division of PIS which handles all
projects funded by China.
--James Konstantin Galvez
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