Completing a remarkable turnaround in her fortunes, the former President and now Pampanga representative was exonerated on graft charges in connection with the scuttled $329-million National Broadband Network deal with China’s ZTE Corp. The Sandiganbayan’s fourth division granted the separate demurrers to evidence filed by Arroyo, her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo and former Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos, who were also absolved of the charges on Friday. ADVERTISEMENTA demurrer is a motion for dismissal midway through a trial after the prosecution rests its case. The court further noted that Arroyo eventually cancelled the contract in October 2007; “thus, legally … there was no more contract to refer to at the time of filing of this case.”“Former President Arroyo has been vindicated anew,” the former President’s lawyer Laurence Arroyo said in a statement. The second time, only last week, was in the civil case filed by UCCP (United Church of Christ in the Philippines.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer September 16, 2016 11:32 UTC