BI reiterates Arroyos will be barred from leaving country
Unless ordered otherwise by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, will be barred from leaving the country, whether Friday or Saturday, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said Thursday.
BI spokesperson Antoinette Mangrobang told Radyo Inquirer 990AM that immigration officers had no choice but to implement the watch-list order from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
“As of now, the existing order in our data base is the watch-list order. In the absence of a contrary order, that will remain. In that case we are constrained from allowing them to leave. They still cannot leave,” Mangrobang said in Filipino.
“It’s not that the BI wants to defy the Supreme Court, but there is a procedure. All lawyers know this,” Mangrobang said.
Famous or not
Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Mangrobang said that when the Arroyos presented themselves at the airport on Tuesday, the immigration officers on duty did not have any order from the DOJ removing the Arroyos from the watch list.
“Our immigration officers have no choice but to implement the watch list,” she said.
Mangrobang said the BI had never allowed anyone on the watch list to leave the country on the strength of a handcarried document lifting the ban.
“The immigration officer is not authorized to accept a court order at the airport,” Mangrobang said. “There is a process for this. The commissioner must issue a directive to the immigration officer, and this must be encoded into our data base before the immigration officer can act on the case.”
She said the procedure applied to all, whether the person involved was famous or not.
Still, it is up to the court to decide whether the immigration officers involved could be held in contempt.
“This is part of our job. If we are cited in contempt in the performance of our job, we are ready to face the consequences,” she said.
(For the full report, listen to Radyo Inquirer 990AM.)
