Jose Miguel ‘Mike’ Arroyo taken off watch list

Jose Miguel Arroyo, the husband of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has been removed from the immigration bureau’s watch list.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said she “[had] no choice” but to lift the watch list order (WLO) that she had issued against Arroyo after the Senate blue ribbon committee decided not summon Arroyo to its inquiry into the allegedly anomalous purchase of used helicopters by the Philippine National Police (PNP).

“Remember that the basis of the WLO was the request of the Senate blue ribbon committee because he would be needed in the course of (its) hearings,” De Lima said.

However, after the Senate decision not to summon Arroyo, she said “the WLO would have no leg to stand on. Its reason for being now ceases to exist. I cannot insist on having this WLO”.

Chopper deal

On Aug. 4, De Lima ordered Arroyo and Rowena del Rosario, the former bookkeeper of an Arroyo family corporation, Aug. 4, placed on the immigration watch list after witnesses at the Senate inquiry “implicated” them in the controversial PNP chopper deal.

Arroyo went to the Supreme Court questioning De Lima’s order. On Aug. 23, the high tribunal issued a temporary restraining order against the WLO.

It gave the Department of Justice until Sept. 3 to comment on Arroyo’s petition questioning the constitutionality of the WLO and DOJ Circular 41 that De Lima had cited as the basis for her order.

Doctor’s evaluation

According to De Lima, since her order had already been voided, Arroyo’s petition was now “moot and academic.”

Instead of a full comment, she said the DOJ might file a manifestation “informing the Supreme Court of this development… that the WLO was lifted.”

De Lima clarified, however, that the WLO against Del Rosario would remain.

According to De Lima, blue ribbon committee chair Sen. Teofisto Guingona III had informed her on Wednesday that the committee had decided to excuse Arroyo from attending the Senate hearings, following a medical evaluation of Arroyo’s condition by Manuel Chua Chiaco Jr., executive director of the Philippine Heart Center.

In his letter, Guingona said Chiaco had “testified” that Arroyo had been diagnosed with a heart ailment and had “persisting dissecting aneurism of the descending thoracic aorta.”