Plunder charges filed vs GMA, Dato over CAMSUR projects

MANILA, Philippines - Two lawyers filed on Tuesday a P676-million plunder case against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her son, Camarines Sur 2nd District Rep. Diosdado Ignacio 'Dato' Arroyo for allegedly using taxpayer money in 2010 to create a political bailiwick in Camarines Sur.

Lawyers Robert Guevarra and Renecio Espiritu, Jr., filed the 17-page complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman, citing that the two Arroyos, "by their deliberate, brazen and wanton act, treated public funds as if it were private bank accounts to be dispensed as their royalesque caprice and frivolity see fit."

The complainants said the two Arroyos allotted millions of pesos for dam, irrigation and bridge projects in Camarines Sur as a 'birthday gift' to Dato in 2008, who ran and won in 2010 as congressman in the 2nd District of Camarines Sur.

"These projects were rushed in time for respondent Dato Arroyo's re-election bid in 2010... Billions of pesos were spent and wasted as these projects turned out to be economically unviable and damaging to the lives of the residents and the ecosystem found in the affected communities," the complaint noted.

The lawyers said the rushed Libmanan-Cabusao Dam Project pushed through without consultation with the affected communities, adding that the construction of the dam is not justified.

The older Arroyo is currently detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City for a plunder case in connection with the alleged misuse of the P366-million Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office's intelligence funds.

She is seeking a second term as representative of the 2nd District of Pampanga in the upcoming May elections.

Dato Arroyo is running for re-election as 2nd district congressman of Camarines Sur and is being challenged by outgoing Governor LRay Villafuerte and Liberal Party's Abang Mabolo. (From Philstar.com)