De Lima says SC TRO now ‘moot and academic’

MANILA, Philippines—Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Friday that the temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court stopping the Department of Justice from preventing former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from leaving the country was now “moot and academic” following the issuance of an arrest warrant against her for electoral sabotage in 2007.

“This is real triumph of justice and accountability,” De Lima said of the latest development.

De Lima said that they have informed the camp of Arroyo of the arrest warrant and that the Philippine National Police has been ordered to effect the arrest.

It was Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo who informed Arroyo’s son Camarines Sur Representative Diosdado “Dato” Macapagal about the arrest warrant against the former president.

De Lima said she spoke to President Benigno Aquino, who is in Bali, Indonesia for the 19th Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, about the arrest warrant.

“The President told me to treat Ms Arroyo with utmost respect in consideration of whatever condition she has,” De Lima told a news conference in Malacañang.

She also said Aquino would not object to a hospital arrest.

But De Lima said they will not insist on bringing Arroyo to a detention facility just as long as she stayed home or in St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig where the latter is currently confined.

“But if she leaves the premises, the police is constrained to bring her to the appropriate detention facility,” De Lima said.