TITO-KIKO WORD WAR ERUPTS AGAIN / ARROYOS DEMANDS APOLOGY FROM DE LIMA
[Photo from Google images - Senators Kiko Pangilinan & Tito Sotto]
MANILA, NOVEMBER 13, 2011 (STANDARD) by Rey T. Salita - SENATORS Francis Pangilinan and Vicente Sotto III were at it again, this time over the issue of former President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo's failed bid to seek medical treatment abroad.
Pangilinan, who is married to celebrity Sharon Cuneta, who is Sotto's niece, chided Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel and said they were no longer in power and were in no position to demand travel arrangements from the Palace.
"This corrupted sense of entitlement speaks volumes of how this couple treats high public office," he said.
"The President has infinitely more important things to attend to than act as alalay [nanniy] to the Arroyos. Enough is enough. Their abusive and corrupted ways should be exposed and opposed."
But Sotto said he believed talk of the Arroyos fleeing the country in the guise of medical travel was baseless.
"Before the government underscores the need of delivery of justice, they should first start with observing due process,'' Sotto said.
"They're talking of ensuring the resolution of cases when they have not even accomplished the initial stages of the judicial process in the first place."
Sotto and his nephew-in-law waged a bitter word war in July after he slammed Pangilinan over his alleged failure to act on the complaints of alleged poll irregularities by Arroyo raised by the camp of then presidential aspirant Fernando Poe Jr. in 2004.
Pangilinan gained notoriety for his now-infamous line "noted" in response to the motions raised by Poe's lawyers during the canvassing ofthe votes. This earned him the monicker "Mr. Noted."
Sotto was then part of Poe's campaign team, while Pangilinan was Senate majority floor leader.
In July, Pangilinan condemned the alleged cheating in the 2004 presidential polls, to which Sotto reacted angrily.
"It's only now that they're talking when in 2004, all they said was 'noted,'" Sotto said, a dig at Pangilinan.
"I hate to say this but 'I told you so'," Sotto told reporters.
FROM THE TRIBUNE
Arroyo camp demands apology from De Lima By Virgilio J. Bugaoisan and Charlie V. Manalo 11/13/2011
The camp of former President Gloria Arroyo demanded an apology from Justice Secretary Leila de Lima for both Mrs. Arroyo and the government of the Dominican Republic for insinuating that the now Pampanga representative had sought political asylum in that country after the government of the Caribbean nation belied yesterday having such a request from Arroyo.
Dominican Republic Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Trancoso denied ever having received a request from Arroyo for political asylum.
Morales Troncoso, in a report in the Dominican Republic, said his government has not received an application for asylum from Arroyo.
De Lima had said she was checking reports that Arroyo had asked for political asylum in the Dominican Republic, which she visited early this year, but later on retracted and admitted that she's merely checking rumors spread through text messages.
The Aquino administration in turn based on the admitted rumor had refused to lift a travel ban on Arroyo, saying she might never return to face poll fraud charges among other raps which she denied.
Elena Bautista Horn (photo), spokesman for the former president, told the Tribune that De Lima should apologize not only to Mrs. Arroyo to the government of the Dominican Republic as well.
"This is embarrassing, the Dominican Republic may have thought that we have a rumormonger for a Justice Secretary. This affirms the student council style of running the government (under President Aquino)," Bautista Horn said.
The Palace, nevertheless, placed the blame on the Arroyo camp itself on the circulating rumor of Mrs. Arroyo seeking political asylum in different countries.
Aquino's spokesman Abigail Valte said the camp of Mrs. Arroyo should be forthright and clarify reports of their alleged attempts to seek asylum abroad as she alleged that there has been confusion amid conflicting statements with respect to the former President's previous travel in the Dominican Republic.
Valte was referring to reports quoting the Arroyo camp saying Mrs. Arroyo and her spouse former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo have never been to this Caribbean nation but later retracted this and claimed that only the former president and not her husband had gone there.
Bautista Horn, however, said, referring to the Dominican Republic denial, now everyone knows who is lying. They be the judge.
"This just proved the grand plan of the Aquino administration to make up stories to divert people's attention from the real issue at hand. The fact is, this administration does not hesitate to make up stories to support their curtailment of a citizen's right under the Constitution," according to Bautista Horn.
"Isn't this disturbing?" she added.
The Palace, however, insisted that the Arroyo camp is not being transparent on the plan of the former president.
"We asked them from the beginning to be forthright. President Aquino himself had said their statements were not clear. This is another manifestation of what we're saying, that the Arroyos haven't been completely forthright with their statements," Valte said.
Valte however tried to distance Aquino from De Lima's asylum tale as she pointed that the Malacanang will just let the Department of Justice (DoJ) conduct its own verification.
"As far as that goes, we will wait for the report if any of Secretary (Leila) de Lima," she said.
Valte also defended De Lima, who has been reaping criticisms because of her alleged tactless remarks De Lima again created a stir for announcing to all and sundry that Mrs. Arroyo and the former First Gentleman is seeking political asylum to the Dominican Republic and at least two other nations on the basis of an unverified report.
She said the threat of disbarment against De Lima is just a ploy of the Arroyo administration to muddle the issue pertaining to Mrs. Arroyo's request to travel abroad for medical treatment which was denied by the government.
"(This) is part of the noise that's going around. What is the focus of this issue? Before, it's medical treatment, now it's legal, now it has turned into an issue against Secretary De Lima," Valte said as she adviced the Arroyo camp to wait for the courts to decide on the petitions they filed to allow Mrs. Arroyo to go abroad and seek medical help.
The Arroyo camp also scored the Aquino administration particularly De Lima for admitting they are banking on the rumors that Mrs. Arroyo and her family had been granted by a foreign country political asylum for the Supreme Court to deny the former leader a temporary restraining order for the watch list order (WLO) the government had issued against Mrs. Arroyo and her family, saying it not only shows that the administration had ran out of legal and sensible arguments but that it was also a tacit admission the government is bent on persecuting the former First Family.
At the weekly Kapihan sa Annabels, Arroyos counsels, lawyers Raul Lambino and Ferdinand Topacio took turns in lambasting President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino and De Lima for continuously denying the Arroyos the permission to leave the country as part of a grand design to persecute the Arroyo family.
"Secretary De Lima's pronouncement that she is investigating the rumors spread through a text message that Mrs. Aquino had been granted political asylum by the Dominican Republic and that if proven true could be used as a ground to reject Mrs. Arroyo's request for travel abroad is a tacit admission the government is indeed persecuting the Arroyos," said Lambino. "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that any person who is persecuted for their political and religious beliefs can request for political asylum."
"So, aside from the fact that they have ran out of any legal and sensible argument to prevent Mrs. Arroyo from seeking medical treatment abroad, they are now admitting they are persecuting the Arroyos," Lambino averred.
For his part, Topacio said the signs of persecution are written all over the acts of the government as no less than Aquino had declared that he expects the Arroyos to be formally charged in court starting November this year.
"It was the President's order to have the Arroyos charged in court starting November and it was validated no less than his spokesperson Edwin Lacierda who said that it was the president's order and they were obliged to adhere to that," said Topacio.
"To that effect, Ms. Abigail Valte even said they expect Mrs. Arroyo to spend her Christmas in jail. And Mr. Lacierda was even quoted that a cell had already been constructed in Muntinlupa for Mrs. Arroyo," Topacio added.
"Now, how can you expect fairness from this administration when it had already prejudged the case against the Arroyos? Is this not persecution?" Topacio said.
"Even the late Sen. Ninoy Aquino, in 1973, wrote the Military Commission No. 2 saying he cannot expect them to find him innocent as no less than President Ferdinand Marcos had judged him to be guilty. So, how can they reverse their commander-in-chief, in the same breath that how could Aquino's subalterns reversed his pronouncement? If Mr. Aquino had already prejudged the Arroyos to be guilty, then his subordinates are bound to work on that framework and that is what Secretary De Lima is doing now," Topacio said.
Another lawyer, Alan Paguia said that even of it could be proven that Mrs. Arroyo had sought political asylum from another country, it could not justify denying her right to travel.
"An application for a political asylum cannot be used to justify in trampling down a person's right to travel as it is guaranteed by the Constitution," said Paguia.
"The problem with this administration is that it is trying to interpret the Constitution as to what would suit them. The Constitution cannot be adjusted to suit politics. It should be the other way around and that politics should adjust to the Constitution," Paguia explained.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo's main attending physician, Juliet Cervantes issued a certification refuting statements made earlier by de Lima that the former leader might just be trying to use her health condition to evade facing charges as she could seek local treatment.
In her certification, Cervantes stressed there is no available bone mineral disorder expert in the Philippines who could attend to Mrs. Arroyo ailment.
"As stated in the medical bulletins and various medical abstracts previously submitted on the current medical condition of former President and Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, there is improvement as far as the cervical spine surgery, but there is a possibility of a rare bone mineral disorder that may require a bone biopsy," Cervantes's certification read.
"As far as we know, there is no bone mineral disorder expert and/or metabolic bone pathologist in the Philippines," the certification added. Charlie V. Manal
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