Philippines: Lawyer Defends FG

First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo was confined at St. Luke’s Hospital from December 1 to December 5, 2006, during which he underwent a life-threatening coronary angioplasty operation.

This is a fact well-reported by media and a fact attested to by St. Luke’s itself in a certification issued by Ms. Sonia Hanopol, department manager of the hospital’s records management department.

Thus, it was the height of absurdity for one Dante Madriaga to allege before the Senate that the First Gentleman was off and running playing golf on December 5, 2006, right on the very day of his discharge from St. Luke’s.

Surely, playing golf would be the last thing on the mind of someone who had just stared death in the face — someone who just hours ago still had IV lines dripping life-sustaining fluids into his veins.

But to belabor the point: Attorney Arroyo neither played golf nor threatened anyone at Wack-Wack on December 5, 2006 for the simple reason that he was never at Wack-Wack on the said date. Likewise, such actuations run against the very character of Attorney Arroyo for he is a very amiable, mild-mannered and soft-spoken person.

What all of these show to the Filipino people is that Madriaga has no credibility whatsoever as a witness; that his allegations that the First Couple had received payoffs from the NBN project were all lies.

All of these betray the hidden hands behind this ill-motivated witch-hunt intended to discredit the administration while camouflaged as a Senate investigation in aid of legislation.

If Madriaga’s spinning of tall tales have any negative effects, they all fall on the Senate for accepting and not challenging the hearsay allegations of discredited witnesses like Madriaga.This is the same Madriaga who late last year had been reported to be peddling his testimony for five to 10 million pesos. –end-

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