MANILA, Philippines—The legal battle for the late Representative Ignacio Arroyo’s body has now reached Philippine soil.
Alicia Rita Arroyo, Arroyo’s estranged spouse, has petitioned a Quezon City court to grant her custody of her late husband’s remains which are still in London after his partner, Grace Ibuna, obtained a UK court order stopping its release.
Alicia has also asked for a temporary restraining order and injunctions against Ibuna and Bianca Arroyo, the late lawmaker’s daughter with his first wife, Marilyn Jacinto.
Alicia’s urgent petition, which marks the start of the legal battle to return her husband’s body into the country, is separate from a case now before a London court which Ibuna had filed.
In her plea, which was raffled off to the sala of Judge Eleuterio Bathan, Alicia consistently described herself as Arroyo’s “legal wife” while Ibuna was “the mistress.”
The late congressman and Alicia were married in 1994 and have a 14-year-old daughter.
At the time of Arroyo’s death on January 26 in London from a liver ailment, the couple’s annulment case had not been resolved although the lawmaker had left his wife years ago for Ibuna.
Named as respondents in Alicia’s civil complaint were Ibuna and Bianca Arroyo, as well as several John and Jane Does “who were acting under (their) control.”
As the legal wife, Alicia said she is charged with the duty of having custody of her late husband’s remains and arranging the funeral.
She cited provisions in the Revised Administrative Code and the Civil Code which points to the surviving spouse of a deceased as having legal custody of the deceased and the right to bury the remains.
Burying Iggy
Alicia said she had immediately made arrangements to repatriate Arroyo’s body back to the Philippines to bury him in the country, which Alicia said were in accordance with her husband’s wishes.
Alicia flew to London last February 1 to bring the late solon’s body home but failed.
On February 3 and 6, Ibuna filed a case before the high court of justice chancery in London asking the court to “dispose of” Arroyo’s body and “not deliver the remains to any other person.”
Alicia pointed out that she is charged before the law to take custody of her husband’s body and bury the remains, but she is being prevented from doing so.
Alicia alleged in her petition of a collusion between Ibuna and Bianca.
“It appears that Grace, acting in concert with Bianca, continues to refuse to acknowledge petitioner’s status as legal wife,” she added.
Alicia said that because of her legal right over Arroyo’s remains, this denies Ibuna the right to do what she wants with the late lawmaker’s body.
She said she and her 14-year-old daughter may suffer “grave injustice and irreparable injury,” saying her daughter has suffered “psychological harm” over the failure to obtain custody of her husband’s remains.
She said her daughter failed to spend quality time with the then ailing Arroyo and say her “final good-byes” because “Grace [Ibuna] made it difficult” for them to see her father.
During questioning in Bathan’s sala Thursday, Alicia said that Arroyo had wished that, were he to pass away, his wake be held at their conjugal home.
She said her late husband had made these plans in the late 1990s before the couple’s relationship went sour.
Lawyer Leonard de Vera, Ibuna’s lawyer, pointed out that this desire supposedly made by the deceased lawmaker was made a decade ago and without written proof.