Lawyers of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday denounced the election sabotage charges filed by the Commission on Elections against the Pampanga congresswoman as a “moro-moro” (mockery) and that the process by which it came about was done with undue haste.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima disagreed, calling the legal action taken against Arroyo “the real triumph for justice and accountability.”
“Justice has been served,” De Lima said at a press conference in Malacañang.
De Lima’s remarks clashed with those of Ferdinand Topacio, the lawyer of Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo. Topacio said it was impossible for a judge to assess and render a decision on the charges within one day.
Should that happen, the Comelec and the Department of Justice would be making a complete mockery of the judicial system, he said.
“This recommendation of the Comelec has to be presented in court which will carry out its own assessment and analysis to judicially determine the existence of probable cause,” Topacio told reporters.
“The evidence is so thick that even the two commissioners (of the Comelec) were not able to finish reading it,” he said.
As it happens, Pasay RTC Judge Jesus Mupas, to whom the case was raffled, ordered the arrest of Arroyo at 4.30 p.m. Police went to St. Luke’s Hospital in Taguig City where Arroyo is confined and served the arrest warrant at 6.30 p.m.
Prepare for worst
Topacio said that Arroyo first heard of the arrest order on TV.
He said she had been advised by her lawyers to “prepare for the worst” as early as noon Friday.
“I’m a veteran of these things. I knew something was afoot once I heard that the Comelec had set a meeting at 9 a.m. or two hours before the SC en banc,” said Topacio.
He said Arroyo met with her lawyers in the adjoining room at lunch but she did not eat anything.
He said she felt pain all over her body and could not move too much.
When asked if Arroyo would spend a day in jail, Topacio said it would all depend on her health condition. “If she gets better then she has to go to jail,” said Topacio.
Arroyo’s legal spokesperson, Raul Lambino, said he was not surprised that the electoral sabotage case was filed as Aquino government officials have been repeatedly announcing it.
He said the election sabotage case was “fabricated,” explaining that the affidavit submitted by Andal Ampatuan Sr., the former Maguindanao governor, on Thursday denying any involvement of Arroyo in the rigging of the elections in the province was ignored by the Comelec-Department of Justice special panel that conducted the preliminary investigation of the case.
For Topacio, the independence of the Comelec, an independent constitutional body, had been tarnished for taking part in the “railroading” of the case.
“For us, this is an uphill climb. It’s hard to go against Malacañang,” he said.
Before the news that an arrest warrant had been issued, Lambino said the medical condition of the former President was “stable and OK” and that she was able to eat and walk around her hospital room.
“I don’t know how this news (of the election sabotage case) would affect her,” Lambino said.
Earlier on Friday, Topacio and Lambino told reporters they would discuss with their client what legal moves to take against the case filed by the Comelec.
However, the two did not come out of the hospital after the warrant of arrest was served on Arroyo.
Cheers and applause
Militant and civil society groups protesting in front of the Supreme Court greeted with cheers and applause reports that the Comelec had filed an electoral sabotage case against Arroyo.
Padre Faura Street in front of the Supreme Court compound was closed to traffic because of two rallies led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and another by the Bantay Gloria Network led by Akbayan and other civil society groups, including the Black and White Movement and the Filipinos for Peace and Justice Movement.
The protesters, who numbered about 200, carried red- and yellow-colored placards calling for Arroyo’s incarceration. One showed the former President’s picture superimposed with prison bars with the words, “Jail the Cheater!”
Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, who attended the rally, said Arroyo had no reason to say that the charges against her were rushed.
“All the cases against Arroyo have been pending for years and years—the cheating in the elections, the corruption cases such as the NBN-ZTE and the fertilizer scam. It’s just Malacañang which took a long time building and filing the cases,” Colmenares said.
He said the NBN-ZTE case pending in the Ombudsman was expected to be deemed submitted for resolution on Monday, the final day of the extension period to file a reply sought by the Arroyo camp.
“We may not be lawyers but we have the right to express our exasperation and disappointment that the law is not always for everyone. That’s the feeling that we get,” added Leah Navarro, a convener of the Black and White Movement.
Renato Reyes, Bayan Muna secretary general, said he hoped the Aquino administration would speed up the filing of other charges against Ms Arroyo.
“We hope electoral sabotage will not be the first and last case filed against her. Cases of plunder and human rights violations should also follow suit,” Reyes said in a statement.
The protesters also said they were willing to enforce a “people’s hold-departure order” against the former President even at the risk of facing contempt charges, to prevent her from “escaping.” They also expressed support for De Lima.
Referring to Arroyo, rally leader Risa Hontiveros said in Filipino: “She should stay in the Philippines, get [medical] treatment here, and face the cases against her.”
After the rally, the militants sent representatives to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to be on guard, they said, should Arroyo attempt to leave.
But their action proved unnecessary with the arrest of the former President. With reports from Jerome Aning, Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. and Jaymee T. Gamil
First posted 1:10 am | Saturday, November 19th, 2011