DOJ-Comelec panel to summon Mike Arroyo

Former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo will be required to face the investigation into purported irregularities during the 2007 midterm elections in Mindanao after all.

The head of the joint Department of Justice (DOJ) and Commission on Elections (Comelec) preliminary investigation committee on Monday said Arroyo, the husband of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, would be summoned by the panel next week when its probe into the alleged election anomalies starts next week.

Prosecutor General Claro Arellano, head of the joint panel, said Arroyo was included among the respondents in the electoral sabotage case filed by Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.

He stressed that the case filed by Pimentel was different from the recommendation of the joint DOJ-Comelec fact-finding committee which presented its findings to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on October 20.

“(Arroyo) has to appear because there are two complaints (filed),” Arellano told reporters after meeting with the members of the seven-member committee.

“The first one was the report of the fact-finding committee and the other is the complaint of (Pimentel) which included the former First Gentleman (as respondent),” he said.

In its initial report, the DOJ-Comelec fact-finding team endorsed the filing of an electoral sabotage case against Mrs. Arroyo and 36 other personalities.

It did not include Arroyo in the list of would-be respondents, but recommended that he be placed under “further investigation” since the accusations against him were mere “hearsay.”

However, the panel said the DOJ-Comelec preliminary investigation committee might still summon Arroyo and other personalities “who have allegedly taken part, directly or indirectly, in the rigging of election results.”

According to Arellano, the committee will require all the personalities listed in the report of the fact-finding team to attend the opening of its inquiry on November 3. “But they may also be represented by their respective counsels,” he said.

Asked if the panel would order Gloria Arroyo to personally appear before the committee, he said in a mix of Filipino and English: “It depends on her condition. If she could personally attend, then we will require her to appear.”

Aside from her, the fact-finding team recommended the filing of electoral sabotage case against former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos, retired Election Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, former Justice Secretary Alberto Agra, detained former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and several other personalities.

In its report, the DOJ-Comelec panel said “the tampering with the election results in the province of Maguindanao through the preparation of manufactured election returns (ERs)” constituted “a conspiracy.”

It said the fabricated ERs “became the basis of the canvass, thereby resulting in the increase of votes, on a large scale and in substantial numbers, to the prejudice of other candidates.”