Mike Arroyo now free to go anytime, anywhere

Former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The husband of former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is now free to travel  anywhere in the world anytime he wants to.

In an order, Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras III  revoked the watch-list order it previously issued on Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo and seven others as a result of the investigation conducted by a joint panel of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Commission on Elections (Comelec) into the alleged fraud in the 2007 midterm elections in Mindanao.

But Arroyo’s husband does not plan to take off anytime soon.

In a text message to reporters, he said: “Why should I leave? I will stay here with my wife. There is no reason for me to leave.”

Paras lifted the travel ban on Mike Arroyo et al. “on the basis of the dismissal of the cases by the Comelec.” He issued the order on Monday, but it was disclosed to the media only on Tuesday.

“Accordingly, their names are hereby ordered deleted from the Bureau of Immigration’s watch list, unless they are the subject of a watch-list/hold-departure order in any other cases,” Paras’ order read.

The seven others stricken off the watch list were Gabriel Claudio, a former spokesperson of the former President; Bong Serrano, his former chief of staff; former Justice Secretary Alberto Agra; lawyer Andrei Bon Tagum; Romy Dayday; Jeremy Javier; and a certain Butch.

Along with the former President, they were among the 40 persons recommended to be charged by the DOJ-Comelec fact-finding panel for supposedly rigging the results of the 2007 senatorial race in some parts of Mindanao. But the joint investigating panel that subsequently conducted the preliminary inquiry into the poll fraud complaint of Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III absolved most of the respondents.

Circular No. 41

The Comelec used the joint investigating panel’s resolution as basis in filing an electoral sabotage case against Gloria Arroyo, former Maguindanao Election Supervisor Lintang Bedol and former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. in the Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC).

The Pasay RTC eventually issued warrants for the arrest of Arroyo, Bedol and Ampatuan Sr. Arroyo was served the warrant in her suite at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City and the two men, in detention facilities in Camp Crame and Bicutan, respectively.

The former First Couple tried to leave the country on November 15 after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on their inclusion in the watch list of the Bureau of Immigration. But the Arroyos were barred from flying out by immigration and airport officials under orders from Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who contended that the TRO was not yet in effect because the justice department had not received a copy.

On Tuesday, Mike Arroyo said the only reason the DOJ lifted the watch-list order on him was to render moot his petition in  the Supreme Court and to prevent others from questioning DOJ Circular No. 41.

The circular, issued by then Justice Secretary Agra during the last few months of the Arroyo administration, was the basis of the watch-list order on the former first couple et al.

Mike Arroyo also said the high court’s decision to schedule oral arguments on the constitutionality of the joint DOJ-Comelec inquiry was “good enough for me.”

Free to go

“As long as the Supreme Court takes it up [and] arguments are scheduled and respondents are made to answer. We follow whatever the honorable [court] says. Unlike De Lima, we follow the rule of law,” he said.

In a statement, Bureau of Immigration spokesperson Maria Antonette Bucasas-Mangrobang said the agency’s officers in all Philippine airports and seaports had been instructed to allow Mike Arroyo from leaving should he decide to go overseas.

“He can now leave anytime as there is no more legal impediment to his travel abroad,” Mangrobang said. She said the seven other persons taken off the watch list could also depart anytime they wished.

Upon receipt of the DOJ’s written directive, Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. immediately issued the order deleting the names of Mike Arroyo et al.   from the watch list. With a report from Jerome Aning

Originally posted at 11:46 am | Tuesday, November 22, 2011