Ibuna’s case keeps Ignacio Arroyo body in UK 22 days after his death

The mistress of the late Negros Occidental Representative Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo should withdraw the case she had filed in the United Kingdom that was delaying the return of his body to the Philippines, according to the lawyer of his estranged wife.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday in an ambush interview, Lorna Kapunan, legal counsel for Alicia Arroyo, said businesswoman Grace Ibuna’s petition that the lawmaker’s body be released to her was only delaying its burial and posing “a serious health hazard for the funeral parlor [in London] and the people around.”

“If it’s true she has genuine affection for the congressman, she should accept that it’s to his best interest that his remains be buried in peace, and then they can talk about the claims on his property later,” Kapunan told business reporters on the sidelines of the annual stockholders’ meeting of the sugar firm Roxas Holdings Inc., of which she is corporate secretary.

“Is Grace Ibuna holding the body hostage, thinking that possession of the body is ownership [and that it] will give her all the properties that she likes? ’Di yata tama ’yon. (That doesn’t seem right.) We’re just talking about funeral services for the late husband of a legal wife,” Kapunan said.

She said the management of the mortuary itself was hoping that the matter would be settled soon, or that Ibuna would withdraw her claim so the body would finally be released.

Ibuna ‘sole heir’

Iggy Arroyo died on January 26 in a hospital in London, where he had been seeking treatment for cirrhosis of the liver. Ibuna was at his bedside when he was taken off life support.

Alicia Arroyo’s camp is also opposing Ibuna’s claim on Iggy Arroyo’s property.

But Kapunan said: “For the moment, let’s not talk yet about those claims.” She added, however, that her client’s camp was disturbed because documents appeared to show that Ibuna had now become the sole beneficiary of the lawmaker’s estate, eliminating the legal wife and his three children from his last will and testament.

Alicia Arroyo’s camp is thus questioning these documents, which indicate that only the “residual assets” will be left for the lawmaker’s three daughters after Ibuna passes away, Kapunan said.

“Will anything be left behind?” Kapunan said. “It’s as if Iggy was saying, ‘Huwag na kayo umasa (Don’t hope for anything). I have no legal heirs. My heir is Grace Ibuna.’”

Kapunan said the will was executed in 2009, “when we had serious doubt on the soundness of his health, both physically and mentally.”

“If it’s so that he was under severe medication, it may be in fact that these documents being claimed were executed when he was not of sound and disposing mind and health,” she said.

Asked how much assets are under question, Kapunan said she did not know as her camp was still trying to get a copy of the lawmaker’s statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

She said it appeared that at the height of the “Jose Pidal” controversy, there was a big surge in assets that later dwindled.

“And when [Iggy and Grace’s] relationship became public, halos wala nang laman yung SALN (there was almost nothing left in the SALN),” she said.

PH, not UK, law

Kapunan said her client “is hoping that whatever it is that Grace has filed, that she will now [come to] her senses and withdraw that affidavit of claim and, as the UK court has indicated, allow Philippine law to govern.”

“And under Philippine law, it’s really the legal wife [who should be in charge],” she said.

Kapunan said that acting on Ibuna’s petition, the UK court had set a hearing on February 20 to determine if the lawmaker’s body should be released to Ibuna, effectively delaying the release of the body.

She said Ibuna filed the case on February 3, the same day that Alicia Arroyo was supposed to receive the body and fly it back to Manila via Emirates airline.

But Alicia Arroyo was told by the mortuary managers that the latest instruction of their client, who turned out to be Ibuna, was the cremation of the lawmaker’s remains in the United Kingdom, according to Kapunan.

“So we said, ‘How can that be? Cremation was never an option,’” the lawyer said.

Kapunan said what the public did not know was that contrary to Ibuna’s claims, her client had been taking care of the lawmaker since 1998 until their estrangement in 2005.

“He was well already, but he became sick again because of Grace Ibuna’s starting him again on drinking and smoking,” she said.

Agree on arrangements

In filing the case in the United Kingdom, Ibuna must have been thinking she could claim the body and bring it back to the Philippines, Kapunan said.

But the filing of the case only delayed the release of the body because the UK court is having difficulty interpreting Philippine law, the lawyer said.

Quoting the lawyer of the London mortuary holding the lawmaker’s body, Kapunan said that the court documents were insufficient and that the UK judge was requiring her and her client to submit via teleconference the testimony of an expert on Philippine law.

She said this was in line with Alicia Arroyo’s position that these cases must be filed in the Philippines.

“All that has to be done is for them to come back to the Philippines [and] agree on funeral arrangements,” Kapunan said. She said arrangements could be made that would suit all the parties involved, including Iggy Arroyo’s family and children as well as her client.

And if Ibuna can substantiate her claim on the lawmaker’s assets, she should file it in a Philippine court, Kapunan said.

“There’s still a regime of justice in this country. There’s still a rule of law despite efforts of the last administration to corrupt the judiciary,” she said.

Originally posted at 08:48 pm | Wednesday, February 15,  2012