FORMER PRESIDENT GLORIA ARROYO
MANILA, NOVEMBER 18, 2011 (CBC NEWS CANADA)
Former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was arrested in
her hospital room on electoral fraud charges Friday in a high-profile tug of war
set off by her attempts to leave the country ostensibly for medical treatment.
Arroyo became the second ex-Philippine president to face trial, after her
ousted predecessor Joseph Estrada was sentenced to life imprisonment on
corruption charges and later pardoned by her.
Arroyo denies any wrongdoing and accuses the government of political
persecution when it stopped her from leaving the Philippines for overseas
medical treatment for a bone ailment. Her lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, said the
government had filed fabricated charges with "indecent haste."
Warrant issued
The Supreme Court earlier Friday upheld her right to travel, but a lower
court where the formal charges were filed later issued an arrest warrant that
effectively bars her from leaving.
Arroyo has been recovering in a hospital since her failed attempt to leave
the country Tuesday, and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said she will remain
confined to her hospital room.
"They are not going to, let's say, handcuff her and take her out of the
room," de Lima said. "We will not object to hospital arrest."
In a drama that has galvanized the Philippines, Arroyo, 64, sitting in a
wheelchair and wearing a head and neck brace, was turned back Tuesday night from
boarding a flight out of Manila. Authorities said she was still under
investigation and might become a fugitive.
Her successor and staunch critic, President Benigno Aquino III, was
overwhelmingly elected on promises to rid the Philippines of corruption and has
said he wants to start with Arroyo.
The former president sought help from the Supreme Court, which issued a
temporary clearance for her to travel and reaffirmed it Friday. But the
government ignored the order, saying national interest and uncovering the truth
were more important than an individual's right to travel.
"It is our desire that truth and accountability prevail and that the Filipino
people be given the justice they truly deserve," de Lima told reporters.
"Justice has been served. It's very relieving," she said.
Charges filed
The election fraud charges filed Friday by the Commission on Election carry a
maximum penalty of 40 years in prison. Arroyo legal spokesman Raul Lambino said
the case against her "is a high form of injustice."
The charges stem from allegations that Arroyo conspired with officials to
tamper with results of 2007 congressional polls to favour her candidates.
She was accused of having direct knowledge of massive cheating in an
autonomous Muslim region in the southern Philippines, the country's poorest and
notoriously corrupt region, where ballot boxes are switched en masse and voters
paid or threatened to abstain.
A probe this year by the Senate Electoral Tribunal found that an Arroyo ally,
Miguel Zubiri, benefited from fake ballots. He resigned his Senate seat in
favour of an opposition candidate.
Two witnesses -- an election supervisor and a former governor of the Muslim
region -- have alleged that Arroyo and her husband ordered election rigging to
favour administration candidates like Zubiri.
During her tumultuous nine-year presidency from 2001 to 2010, Arroyo ranked
as the country's least popular leader and faced down several coup and
impeachment attempts over corruption allegations.
Wiretap recording
Her most serious crisis came a year after she was elected in 2004, when a
wiretapped recording surfaced of her talking to an election official allegedly
about securing a vote margin for herself. She later apologized but said she did
nothing wrong.
After stepping down last year, Arroyo, 64, was elected to the House of
Representatives and immediately faced at least half a dozen legal complaints,
including allegations that she diverted state funds for her campaign effort and
benefited from foreign contracts.
FROM PHILSTAR
Gov't makes last-ditch effort to stop GMA flight
(The Philippine Star) Updated November 18, 2011 03:10 PM
MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang made a last-ditch effort this afternoon to
prevent former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and husband, Jose Miguel
Arroyo, from leaving the country amid the Supreme Court's (SC) earlier decision
upholding the temporary restraining order on the Department of Justice's (DOJ)
watchlist order against the former first couple.
SC spokesman Midas Marquez told reporters that the DOJ filed around 2:16 p.m.
an urgent motion before the high court, urging the immediate lifting of the TRO.
Marquez said that the DOJ cited in its seven-page motion the Commission on
Elections' (Comelec) filing of an electoral sabotage case against Mrs. Arroyo
before the Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) before noon today.
The filing of the case was made right after an emergency en banc meeting of
the Comelec, where majority of the commissioners voted in favor of the filing of
the electoral sabotage case.
The camp of Mrs. Arroyo earlier said that the Comelec's move was meant to
preempt the decision of the SC.
The DOJ also informed the SC that the case has been raffled to a branch in
the Pasay RTC and the government has asked the lower court to issue a
hold-departure order against Mrs. Arroyo.
The petition was filed almost an hour after Marquez announced that the SC
upheld the TRO it issued last Tuesday during this morning's special en banc
session. He said the voting during the session was also 8-5, the same as the
result of the voting last Tuesday, in favor of the Arroyos' petition against the
watchlist order and Circular No. 41 of the DOJ.
Meanwhile, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said in a television interview
that authorities will continue to implement the watchlist order of the DOJ,
unless De Lima orders otherwise.
Robredo said that the government is of the belief that the TRO, despite being
upheld by the SC, could not be implemented because of the second condition has
not been fully complied with.
He cited Marquez's announcement that lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, who has been
appointed by the Arroyos as their legal representative, is ordered by the SC to
submit a supplemental compliance indicating his authority to receive legal
processes in behalf of the former first couple.
Marquez said that Topacio had submitted compliance documents to the SC, but
it did not contain the word "received."
The SC set three requirements before the Arroyos are allowed to leave the
country. Among the three requirements were: a cash bond of P2 million, the
appointment of a legal representative and to report to the Philippine consulate
office or embassy in the country where they intend to travel to.
Robredo said that "condition No. 2" has not been fully complied with based on
Marquez's announcement.
Topacio, in another television interview, said that Robredo's statement was
"deplorable."
"Again the administration is interpreting the order of the Supreme Court in
the manner which it wants," the lawyer said.
He repeated Marquez's earlier statement that the TRO "stays in full force"
and "in effect." -- Angelo L. Gutierrez
Pasay court orders Gloria Arroyo's arrest By Jun
Pasaylo (The Philippine Star) Updated November 18, 2011 04:16 PM Comments (127)
MANILA, Philippines - A Pasay City court judge today ordered the arrest of
former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo based on the
electoral sabotage case filed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima announced in a press briefing at Malacañang
that the warrant of arrest issued by Judge Jesus Mupas of the Pasay City
Regional Trial Court Branch 112 has been relayed to the Pasay City police.
"It (the warrant of arrest) is already with the PNP (Philippine National
Police). I think they are going to the airport," De Lima said, adding that if
Mrs. Arroyo fails to arrive at the airport, policemen will serve the warrant at
the hospital.
Spokespersons of Mrs. Arroyo said earlier that she was booked for a flight to
Singapore at arond 5 p.m. The former president remains confined at the St.
Luke's Medical Center in Global City, Taguig.
She said that she has also informed President Benigno Aquino III, who is
currently in Indonesia, about the issuance of the warrant of arrest.
De Lima said that President Aquino told her "to treat the former president
with utmost respect in consideration of whatever condition she has while in
hospital." She said that this means the government will not object if Arroyo
asks for a hospital or house arrest.
She added that out of courtesy to the former president, the DOJ immediately
sent word to Arroyo's camp that the warrant of arrest has been issued against
her.
She said that the information was relayed by Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo
to the camp of the former president through her son, Camarines Sur 1st District
Rep. Dato Arroyo.
In a press conference at the Supreme Court, spokesman Midas Marquez said that
the temporary restraining order issued by the high court on the watchlist order
by the DOJ remains in effect.
However, he said that Mrs. Arroyo can no longer leave the country.
"If you are going to ask if the former president can still leave, she is now
barred because of the warrant of arrest," Marquez said.
Meanwhile, he said that former first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo can push
through with his plan to leave the country.
Judge Mupas issued the warrant of arrest hours after the Comelec filed the
electoral sabotage case against the former president. Electoral sabotage is a
non-bailable offense.
The case is based on the alleged massive cheating during the 2007 senatorial
election.
Reports said that arrest warrants have also been issued against former
Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos, former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr.
and former Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol.
The arrest warrants issued against Ampatuan Sr. and Bedol are deemed served
because they are already under custody.-- Angelo L.
Gutierrez
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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rights reserved
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HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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