Election sabotage case bars Gloria Arroyo from leaving country

A warrant of arrest was served against former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City past 4 p.m. yesterday.

The arrest order served by National Capital Region Police Office Director Alan Purisima was signed by Judge Jesus Mupas of Branch 112 of the Pasay Regional Trial Court. Arroyo has been charged with electoral sabotage in the 2007 national elections.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) filed the case against Arroyo, former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr and former Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol for which no bail was recommended.

The Comelec also sought a hold- departure order to keep Arroyo, Ampatuan and Bedol from leaving the country.

As a result, the former president was forced to cancel her flight to Singapore, said Manila International Airport Authority general manager Jose Angel Honrado.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the arrest warrant rendered “moot and academic” the temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court that barred the Department of Justice (DOJ) from preventing Arroyo to leave the country.

The Supreme Court through their spokesman Midas Guttierrez agreed, saying the Pampanga lawmaker cannot leave the country.

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

Conspired

In the information filed with the Pasay City Regional Trial Court Branch 112, the Comelec said Arroyo, Ampatuan and Bedol allegedly conspired on or before May 14, 2007, to ensure a “12-0” victory for the senatorial candidates of the administration’s “team unity” ticket.

The agency said the three “willfully, feloniously and unlawfully tampered the provincial certificate of canvass (PCOC) of votes, the statements of votes by city or municipality (SOVM) and summary statement of votes (SSOV) for the province of Maguindanao.”

The information sheet stated that Arroyo allegedly instructed Ampatuan Sr. to help the “team unity” ticket win in Maguindanao during a dinner meeting in the Palace a few days before the elections.

Ampatuan then supposedly forwarded the instructions to Bedol, who was then the chairman of the provincial board of canvasser of Maguindanao.

In their motion for a hold-departure order, the Comelec said Arroyo’s insistence to leave the country is done to evade prosecution for her electoral sabotage case.

They said her medical condition, which she insisted on being treated abroad, “hardly qualifies as life-threatening.”

De Lima said they informed Arroyo’s camp of the arrest warrant and they ordered the Philippine National Police to effect the arrest.

Utmost respect

She said she informed President Aquino, who is in Bali, Indonesia, to attend a Southeast Asian Nations summit, about Arroyo’s arrest warrant.

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

“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 Mr. Aquino will 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.

Despite the warrant, court administrator and spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez said the temporary restraining order that the tribunal issued lifting travel restriction earlier imposed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima “still stands.”

“But if you’re going to ask whether the former president can still leave, she is now barred because of the warrant of arrest,” Marquez said in a hastily called news briefing.

He said the pending petitions in the the high court questioning Department of Justice Circular 41 and the electoral sabotage case filed in the Pasay RTC “are in no way related with each other.”

Robredo said he was still waiting for the reply of Arroyo’s son. But the administration will not allow Arroyo to leave the country.

“If she goes to the airport, she will be arrested,” Robredo told reporters. Inquirer