De Lima eyes taking Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo off watch list

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Wednesday said she was considering temporarily removing former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from the watch list order (WLO) of the Bureau of Immigration because of her medical condition.

“But at this point, I’m not inclined to do that because her stay in the hospital is just temporary. It may not be good if I withdraw the order and reissue it again,” she said.

De Lima said she would consult government doctors should Arroyo’s attending physicians advise her to seek medical treatment abroad.

The former President, now Pampanga representative, is back at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig for corrective surgery barely a week after she underwent an operation on her cervical spine.

De Lima said she was also considering placing Ang Galing party-list member Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo on the immigration watch list, like his parents, because of pending tax evasion charges.

But she stressed that a WLO would not bar the younger Arroyo from leaving the country.

Mikey Arroyo is said to be in the United States and will return on Aug. 20. He left on Aug. 5 ostensibly to meet with possible donors of medical equipment to his party-list group.

House Majority Leader Edcel Lagman said it was unnecessary to place the Arroyos on the immigration watch list as there was no evidence of flight to avoid prosecution.

He noted that the “prosecutionary process” in the cases against them was still in the initial stages.

Lagman said he had a strong feeling that the Arroyos’ WLO will “graduate” to an HDO, or hold departure order, as the former is the first act toward achieving the latter.