Pampanga 2nd Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is set to be named Deputy House Speaker of the 17th Congress.
The former president made the announcement at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City, where she donated dialysis machines.
She was detained at the VMMC for four years on plunder charges.
Asked which committee she will handle as member of the supermajority in the House of Representatives, Arroyo replied: “I’m Deputy Speaker.”
Arroyo was released from the VMMC last July 21 after the Supreme Court dismissed plunder charges against her based on the alleged misuse of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s P366-million intelligence funds.
Voting 11-4 in favor of Arroyo, the Supreme Court acquitted her from the plunder charges filed against her.
The 11 justices who ruled to junk the former President’s plunder trial in connection with the alleged misused of funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) are Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr,; Justice Teresita de Castro; Justice Arturo Brion;Justice Diosdado Peralta; Justice Lucas Bersamin; Justice Mariano del Castillo; Justice Jose Perez; Justice Jose Mendoza; Justice Bienvenido Reyes; Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe; and Justice Francis Jardeleza.
The justices who voted against Arroyo, meanwhile, are Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, and Justices Marvic Leonen and Benjamin Caguioa. Of the 4, only Carpio is an appointee of CGMA; the rest were appointed by former president Benigno Aquino III.