The camp of Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo deemed "baseless" the graft and malversation raps filed against the former president before the Ombudsman last week, accusing her of abuse of discretion over the disbursement of P38.807 billion in Malamapya funds during her presidency.

Arroyo's legal counsel, Ferdinand Topacio, said that while they have yet to receive the copy of the complaint– and learned about it through the news– they have no doubt that the accusations will be disproven.

"Suffice it to state that based on newspaper reports, the complainant admits that the funds concerned were used for public purposes," the lawyer said.

"In accordance with settled legal principles, Pres. Arroyo has done no wrongdoing during her term, and we are confident that these charges will be proven false, in the same manner, that other accusations made before them have been shown to be baseless," he said.

Topacio was referring to a 34-page complaint filed by National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms or NASECORE president Petronilo "Pete" Ilagan and Boses ng Konsyumer Alliance Inc. president Rogelio Reyes, suing Arroyo of 96 counts each of graft and malversation.

The complainants cited irregularities in the utilization of Malampaya funds during Arroyo's incumbency, specifically the realigning of the revenues to finance government projects for which the funds were not intended.

Arroyo was the Philippine president from 2001 to 2010.

Ilagan and Reyes accused Arroyo of taking advantage of her post in allowing the use of P38.807 billion of Malampaya funds for purposes other than the avowed intention of Presidential Decree 910 and as highlighted by a 2017 special audit on the fund by the Commission on Audit.

PD 910, signed in 1976, mandates that the profits from Malampaya remitted to the government should be used to finance energy resource development and exploration activities.

However, it also stipulates that Malampaya earnings can also be used for "other purposes as directed by the President," which the complainants argued was abused by Arroyo.

"Respondent Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo whimsically took the opportunity of the said law's inadequacy and deliberately twisted the interpretation of the said provision to mean that she, as President, had the discretion to use the Malampaya Fund for whatever purpose she deemed fit," the complainants said.

Ilagan and Reyes heavily emphasized Arroyo's command to direct the Malampaya funds to agricultural and irrigation programs, disaster rehabilitation, transport projects, national security activities, and cash assistance to the transport sector under the Pantawid Pasada Program, which they claimed was entirely unrelated to energy development.

"In short, the Malampaya fund became a discretionary fund of the Office of the President, and disbursements therefrom became subject of whims and caprice of the respondent without regard to the purpose and policy of Presidential Decree No. 910," the complainants said of Arroyo.

In the meantime, Topacio expressed their intention to defer it to the justice system and thereafter present a counterargument against the charges in due time.

Arroyo and three of her Cabinet secretaries were previously sued for plunder by the National Bureau of Investigation before the Ombudsman for purportedly stealing a P900-million Malampaya fund intended for the impoverished back-to-back typhoon victims in 2009.

She was cleared of the charges in 2016 following then-Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales' verdict that the NBI "failed to prove" that they colluded in the illegal diversion of Malampaya fund.