SC MAY UNDO ARROYO ARREST / GMA MUGSHOTS FILED IN JUDGE MUPAS' COURT
MANILA, NOVEMBER 21, 2011 (INQUIRER) By Jocelyn R. Uy, Marlon Ramos (PHOTO - Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo)
Former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may still get a reprieve if the Supreme Court declares as unconstitutional the joint Commission on Elections and the Department of Justice (Comelec-DOJ) panel that recommended her prosecution for alleged electoral fraud, officials said.
Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento expressed fears that the high tribunal might short-circuit the Aquino administration's move, regarded as unprecedented in the annals of Philippine jurisprudence, to arrest Arroyo for allegedly sabotaging the 2007 balloting and thus prevent her from leaving for medical treatment abroad. Malacañang has said the trip was a cover to seek asylum and escape prosecution.
Sarmiento told reporters on Friday about the possibility Arroyo would be freed should the high tribunal rule in favor of the petitions questioning the constitutionality of the panel.
"If the Supreme Court would say it is illegal or unconstitutional, that might be the effect … it might nullify [her arrest]," said Sarmiento, who was among five of the seven members of the Comelec en banc who voted for the filing of electoral sabotage against Arroyo on Friday.
Supreme Court spokesperson Midas Marquez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Sunday that the petitions filed by Arroyo's husband, Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo, and former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos remained pending.
"If the panel is adjudged as unconstitutional, then of course all the proceedings conducted by that panel would have to be nullified," Marquez said. "But again, we have to wait for the decision of the court. I don't want to preempt what the court will do next."
Arroyo, 64, who is suffering a rare bone ailment, is now under "hospital arrest" at St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig City, after Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Jesus Mupas found probable cause to warrant trial of the nonbailable criminal charge penalized with life imprisonment.
The Comelec-DOJ panel early on Friday approved the resolution charging Arroyo, three days after Justice Secretary Leila de Lima ignored a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court on her directive barring Arroyo from leaving the country for medical treatment.
Legal eagles say the TRO is an "extraordinary measure" to prevent irreparable harm against individuals brought by "awesome" state powers.
Aquino Express victim
Two election commissioners did not take part in the decision, claiming that they did not receive a copy of the joint Comelec-DOJ resolution.
Hours later, the document, along with voluminous attachments, was sent to the Pasay City RTC and the case was raffled off.
Mupas, who had previously been reprimanded for sitting on his cases, swiftly fired off the arrest warrant, also within hours, having found probable cause in the charge against Arroyo.
The Arroyo camp denounced the swift manner in which the case was "railroaded," claiming that the former President had just become a victim of the "P-Noy Express." (P-Noy is President Benigno Aquino III's popular moniker.)
While raising the possibility of a negative court decision, Sarmiento expressed confidence about the legality of the panel, which he said was based on Republic Act No. 9369 which allowed Comelec to partner with executive agencies for investigative purposes. "So we can say that we acted with legal support," he said.
But should the high court decide against the panel, Sarmiento said the Comelec's recourse was to conduct and resolve the investigation on its own without the justice department.
"But we won't go back to square one because there are already affidavits submitted," he said.
Lawyers for Arroyo and Abalos have pointed out that the Comelec is mandated under the Constitution to act as an independent body and in partnering with the justice department of the executive branch the joint panel had become nothing more than a "kangaroo court."
They pointed out that the panel was specifically created to prosecute the former President, just like the ill-fated Philippine Truth Commission, which the high tribunal had declared as unconstitutional for being a violation of the due process clause enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
They also said that Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes and De Lima were opposition lawyers during the elections.
De Lima has said that the joint panel was created "so that we'll have a smooth process since both Comelec and DOJ have concurrent jurisdiction on election offenses."
President Aquino has said he wants Arroyo in jail before Christmas to fulfill a campaign promise to prosecute the former President for alleged corruption and electoral sabotage. Originally posted: 9:40 pm | Sunday, November 20th, 2011
Gloria Arroyo mug shots while hooked to IV drip By Cynthia D. Balana, Tarra Quismundo Philippine Daily Inquirer 3:39 am | Sunday, November 20th, 2011 15share427 408
As head of state she was honored in state banquets and greeted with military salutes, but on Saturday she was booked on charges of electoral sabotage, becoming the second ex-Philippine President to be detained on criminal allegations.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now a representative of Pampanga, was not only wearing a neck brace over her hospital gown but was also hypertensive, "frail-looking" and hooked to an IV drip when she went through the standard booking procedure, police said.
"We proceeded to [her] room. We took her photographs, portrait and profile (left and right side) for our mug book reference," Senior Supt. Joel Coronel, chief of the Metro Manila regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), told reporters in a briefing Saturday afternoon.
Police took Arroyo's finger and palm prints, and was checked by police medical officers to determine whether she indeed had to remain at St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig City, where the warrant for her arrest was served on Friday evening.
Said Coronel: "[She] will remain under guard and detention here … until such time the warrant will be returned to court and a compliance report submitted to court. And it will be up to the court, again exercising its sound discretion, whether to order the continued confinement of President Arroyo here or transfer her to another detention facility."
Arroyo's husband, Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo, relatives and friends surrounded her during the two-hour procedure that began at 1:45 p.m.
Contrary to earlier reports that her family had asked to be allowed to supply her mug shots, Coronel said police photographers took Arroyo's booking shots. He said the police were not aware of any such request.
He said because Arroyo was "not capacitated to hold anything" at the time of the booking, police technicians held up the plate on which her name and case number were written.
Commenting on the Arroyo camp's request to withhold her mug shots from the public, Coronel said that Arroyo's booking records—mug shots, finger and palm prints—would be filed in court on Sunday for Judge Jesus Mupas' decision.
Mug shots of former President Joseph Estrada were publicly released when he was booked on plunder charges at the national police headquarters in Camp Crame in April 2001, just a few months after he was ousted in January 2001.
Arroyo took his place and was elected in 2004 in controversial polls, serving a total of 10 stormy years in office until June 2010.
Mike Arroyo's lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, called on authorities and the media to keep the Pampanga lawmaker's mug shots from public view, saying "she's not in her best appearance."
Due respect
Coronel said Arroyo was given due respect as a former leader throughout the procedure.
"We took consideration of her present medical condition … She was suffering from severe stress and hypertension [Friday] night [when the arrest warrant was served]. I was informed by our medical officers that she's not feeling well and, for this reason, we gave her a small latitude, the courtesy and respect accorded to a former President," he said.
Senior Supt. Herminigilda Salangad, a police doctor who checked Arroyo during the booking, noted that she was weak and had a blood pressure of 140/100.
"We saw her fragile-looking, suffering from hypertension. She's on IV fluids and of course in a neck brace. She's slightly dehydrated, thin-looking, frail-looking, much thinner than how she looked before," Salangad said.
Arroyo's chief physician, Dr. Juliet Gopez-Cervantes, said the patient had been refusing to eat and was given antibiotics because of bacterial infection in her large intestine.
She is expected to remain confined in the hospital for several more days or weeks.
Multiorgan involvement
Cervantes noted some improvement in the condition of Arroyo's cervical spine, which was operated on earlier this year.
Doctors are monitoring a bone growth in Arroyo's neck area.
Asked if Arroyo's condition was life-threatening, Cervantes said: "As a doctor, when you say matter of life or death, there is multiorgan involvement, there is deterioration of the vital signs. That's an urgent thing that is a matter of life or death. Probably, objectively speaking, if we are talking about that, she is not in that condition as of now."
"However, we do not know what is in store for her. If this bone that is growing is not strong enough, that any time it will collapse if support will be removed, that will be a matter of life or death."
Cervantes added that there was "some risk" to allowing Arroyo to travel but that she could endure a flight given proper medical support.
But Topacio said Arroyo's health was deteriorating as a result of her arrest.
"Since she is still [in the hospital] under guard, then I would assume that her doctors have informed the arresting team that there will be grave danger to her physiognomy if she is moved from the hospital," he said.
Only the start
In Bali, Indonesia, Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang said the electoral sabotage case might just be "the start" of a string of cases against Arroyo.
"This is the first one filed by us. There are other cases [to be] filed by civil society groups," he said in an interview at the Bali International Convention Center.
Carandang said it took the government a while to file the case because of the long time needed to build it up and convince witnesses to come out. "We just want to make sure we cross the t's and put the dots of the i's," he said.
But he reiterated President Aquino's directive to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima for the government to extend all courtesies due Arroyo as a former President. He said there would be no objection to any motion she would file to extend her hospital stay, "for the time being."
"We don't know what's going to happen yet," said Carandang, who stood in for the President in the opening ceremony and plenary session of the Asean summit in Bali.
He added that the matter of where Arroyo would eventually be detained would "ultimately [be] the decision of the court."
Supplemental petition
But Topacio said he would file on Monday at the Supreme Court a supplemental petition with a very urgent motion for the issuance of a temporary restraining order questioning the legality of the joint investigation committee of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Commission on Elections (Comelec) that recommended the filing of the electoral sabotage case against Arroyo.
Topacio agreed to an interview at St. Luke's after conferring with other lawyers of the former First Couple. He said the high court had yet to resolve the constitutional question involving Department Order No. 001, which created the joint DOJ-Comelec investigation committee that looked into the alleged electoral fraud committed by Arroyo in 2004 and 2007.
The supplemental petition will seek to invalidate all proceedings conducted by the joint committee that led to the filing of the case against Arroyo at a Pasay City court and the issuance of the warrant for her arrest.
Topacio also denounced the quick issuance of the arrest warrant. "What happened on Friday I would not even call coincidental. It's a minor miracle," he said.
He described as uncalled-for the criticism that the eight Supreme Court justices who had voted to lift the travel ban on Arroyo were biased because they were her appointees.
By that logic, he said, the five justices who voted against the lifting were appointees of Mr. Aquino and were therefore also biased.
"That's equal protection. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," he said.
'P-Noy Express'
Arroyo's legal spokesperson, Raul Lambino, said she was "a victim of the P-Noy Express"—a reference to Mr. Aquino.
"What's happening to Mrs. Arroyo is not an ordinary railroad act but a P-Noy Express that violates all laws and rules, even the Supreme Court. And this is very alarming," Lambino told the Inquirer.
On Mr. Aquino's instruction to Justice Secretary De Lima to accord courtesies to Arroyo, Lambino said this was just a "pa-pogi (look-good) point."
"What they're saying is something, but what they're actually doing is another thing," he said.
According to Lambino, the issuance of the arrest warrant by Pasay City Regional Trial Court Branch 112 at a time when the Supreme Court had just reiterated its previous ruling that upheld Arroyo's right to travel only proved that the Aquino administration is "bent on persecuting her."
Sandiganbayan
Lambino said his group had filed a motion for consideration before the Pasay RTC. Specifically, he wants the court to take note that Arroyo's electoral offense should be handled by the Sandiganbayan.
He also said he would handle the Arroyo camp's oral arguments before the Supreme Court on Tuesday on the validity of the DOJ's Circular No. 41 which barred the former President from leaving the country. With a report from TJ Burgonio in Indonesia
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