Mike Arroyo denies rigging 2007 polls

Former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo on Monday said that he and then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had no direct and personal interest to rig the 2007 elections.

“My wife was not running for president in 2007 and neither was I.  So why should we order cheating? What would we get out of it?  It defies both common sense and logic,” Mike Arroyo said.

Mike Arroyo’s lawyer, Inocencio Ferrer, issued the statement in response to the latest allegation of poll fraud by former Maguindanao Administrator Norie Unas submitted in the joint inquiry being conducted by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“It is both tragic and suspicious for Comelec and DOJ to give importance to the allegations of Unas.   Unas had no supporting proof and had admitted to graft and corruption as well as election sabotage in Maguindanao. And yet Comelec and DOJ are giving full prominence in media to Unas’ false statements,” Mike Arroyo said.

“Whatever happened to fair play and impartiality?  If evidence and due process are no longer necessary under this current administration, and questionable people are allowed to commit libel and defamation against the  current administration’s perceived political foes, then what kind of justice can we expect?”

Mike Arroyo’s spokesperson, Raul Lambino, said the current administration was again using the former President and her husband to divert public attention amid criticisms against President Benigno Aquino III for his glaring absence in evacuation and rescue efforts of the victims of Typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel.”

“There is nothing that Unas revealed that had not been revealed before. The justice secretary and the Comelec chair are the primary spokespersons of a dubious personality involved in a lot of shenanigans and they have even offered him protection in exchange for putting all the blame on the Arroyos. This only means that this is the main propaganda for P-Noy (Aquino),” Lambino said in Filipino.

Lambino said that the former President, now a Pampanga representative, was still recovering from her series of surgeries in July and she was still wearing a neck brace.

He said the former President had neither been reading newspapers nor watching the news to avoid stress.