MANILA, Philippines - Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was ordered arrested yesterday by a Pasay City court, which found probable cause to charge her and several others with electoral sabotage – a non-bailable offense that may land her in prison for the rest of her life.
The arrest order, issued by Judge Jesus Mupas, came just hours after the Supreme Court (SC) reaffirmed its decision to stop the Department of Justice (DOJ) from enforcing its travel ban on Arroyo.
Also covered by the arrest warrant were former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and former election supervisor Lintang Bedol.
Arroyo, whose nine-year term was the longest among Philippine presidents after the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, received the warrant in her hospital bed at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City at 6:30 p.m. in the presence of her husband Jose Miguel, two hours after it was issued by the court. The Philippine National Police (PNP) tightened security in and around the hospital.
Senior Superintendent James Bucayu, Southern Police District deputy director for administration, said Arroyo looked like she had just woke up when a team of policemen arrived to serve the warrant.
“She did not talk. She just nodded and smiled,” Bucayu said.
“She is (officially) under hospital arrest until her doctors deem her fit to be released,” Bucayu said.
“We will not force her to leave because of her physical condition,” he added.
Lawyer Jose Flaminiano received the warrant. Senior Superintendent Joel Coronel of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) tried to read Arroyo her rights but her lawyer asked him to stop.
The former president is scheduled to be booked today, said Bucayu. As for her mug shots, the Arroyo family will just be required to submit front and side view photos of her because of her medical condition.
“The booking will be (today) so it will be convenient for her as former president because she still looks stressed,” said Bucayu.
The CIDG, meanwhile, expected to serve the warrants for Bedol and Ampatuan last night.
Bedol is detained at the PNP Custodial Center at Camp Crame for contempt charges while Amaptuan is locked up at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology detention center in Bicutan for alleged involvement in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) earlier yesterday approved the filing of electoral sabotage case against Arroyo, Bedol, Ampatuan, former elections chief Benjamin Abalos, and a certain Capt. Peter Reyes in connection with alleged cheating in the 2007 senatorial elections.
The arrest warrant does not include Abalos because the case filed with the Pasay City court covers only poll fraud cases committed in Maguindanao. Systematic cheating in the 2007 elections also took place in South and North Cotabato.
“After a through review the judge found probable cause of issuance of warrant of arrest,” clerk of court Joel Pelicano told reporters. The warrant took effect immediately.
“The offense is non-bailable so all the accused will be detained until resolution of the case,” Pelicano said.
The Comelec filed the case at noon and it took Mupas until 4:30 p.m. to issue a decision on the issuance of a warrant.
Law enforcers and Comelec personnel arrived in the jampacked courtroom to get copies of the order.
Judge Mupas’ sala received eight bound documents, including the decision of the Senate Electoral Tribunal declaring Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel as rightful winner in the 2007 midterm elections. It was Pimentel who filed the electoral sabotage case against Arroyo and the other respondents.
Comelec ruling
Voting 5-2, the Comelec recommended the filing of charges against Arroyo and the others based on the results of the investigation it conducted jointly with the DOJ.
The five commissioners who voted to have Arroyo and the others charged were Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes and Commissioners Rene Sarmiento, Elias Yusoph, Christian Robert Lim, and Augusto Lagman while Commissioners Armando Velasco and Lucenito Tagle abstained.
“In the highest interest of justice and by reason of manifest attempts to frustrate the government’s rights to prosecute and to obtain speedy disposition of the present case pending before the commission, the Law Department and/or any Comelec legal officers as may be authorized by the Commission is hereby ordered to immediately prepare and file the necessary information before the appropriate court,” the Comelec said in a resolution.
In the resolution, the Comelec also ordered that charges against former first gentleman Mike Arroyo, former presidential adviser Gabriel Claudio and his former executive assistant Bong Serrano, former justice secretary Alberto Agra, lawyer Andrei Bong Tagum, Romy Dayday and Jeremy Javier of Presidential Security Group and Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and “John Doe a.k.a. Butch” be dismissed for “insufficiency of evidence to establish probable cause.”
The poll body also ruled that the charges against retired Comelec commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, former Comelec regional director for Soccksargen Michael Abas, Abalos’ former chief of staff Jaime Paz, Col. Reuben Basiao and former Maguindanao provincial administrator Norie Unas “be subjected to further investigation.”
The joint probe panel had recommended that administrative charges be filed against election officers and assistants Estelita Orbase, Eliza Gazmin, Elza Atinen, Saliao Amba, Magsaysay Mohamad, Salonga Edzela, Ragah Ayunan, Susan Cananban, Russam Mabang, Asuncion Corazon Reneido, Nena Alid, Ma. Susan Albano, Rohaida Khalid, Araw Cao, Jeehan Nur, Alice Lim, Norijean Hangkal, Christina Roan Dalope and Maceda Abo.
The Comelec, however, moved that the charges be “subjected to further review by the commission to determine the appropriate charges that may be filed against them.”
The poll body had rejected the panel’s findings of lack of probable cause against Lilian Suan-Radam and Yogie Martirizar, former provincial election supervisors of South Cotabato and North Cotabato, respectively.
Radam and Martirizar went into hiding when the Comelec started investigating them for tampered election results in the two provinces in the 2007 polls. After four years, the two surfaced and stood as witnesses of the panel against the accused in September.
The Comelec filed electoral sabotage charges against Radam before the Pasay City court while the case against Martirizar is still pending with the poll body.
No undue haste
In a press briefing, Brillantes denied insinuations that the Comelec issued the resolution in haste to prevent Arroyo from leaving the country.
Brillantes added that the poll body received the panel’s recommendation last Wednesday but they were able to deliberate on it only yesterday in full session because the commissioners had to attend the agency’s “integrity summit” as well as a budget hearing.
Brillantes had voted for the filing of a case despite an earlier pronouncement that he would inhibit, being a former election lawyer of the Genuine Opposition party in the 2007 polls.
In his concurring opinion, Brillantes said he felt that it was necessary for him to make a stand on the issue.
“While I was originally inclined to inhibit myself in the resolution of the present incident, I now feel that in the higher interest of justice, equity, and as public interest highly demands, I will have to vote and concur with the opinion of my other colleagues considering the finding of probable cause against respondent,” he added.
Brillantes maintained that Arroyo’s complicity “was established specifically on her failure to submit any refuting evidence to the direct statements under oath of witnesses.”
Electoral sabotage is a non-bailable offense and is punishable with life imprisonment under Republic Act 9369 or the Poll Automation Law. Section 42 of the law states electoral sabotage occurs “when the tampering, increase and/or decrease of votes perpetrated or the refusal to credit the correct votes or to deduct tampered votes, is/are committed in the election of a national elective office.”
A case of poll fraud may also be considered electoral sabotage if the affected votes number 10,000 or more.
‘Due respect’
Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said the former president would be accorded due respect and would not be compelled to leave the hospital.
“We’ve notified the family (of her arrest) because we will accord due respect to the former president and she is sick,” said Robredo
“Should she decide that she be taken to a hospital or at their house that will be considered, with the permission of the court and we will not object. If that is requested we will not oppose,” Robredo added.
In a phone interview before the release of the warrant, Arroyo lawyer and spokesman Raul Lambino said she was “resting and regaining her strength after what happened at NAIA.” He was referring to the chaotic attempt by Arroyo and her entourage to board a plane bound for Hong Kong last Tuesday night.
Senior Superintendent Tomas Apolinario Jr. said the deployment of police around St. Lukes Medical Center prior to the serving of the warrant did not indicate they had advance information on the arrest order. “We just want to prevent possible untoward incidents between the anti and pro Arroyos,” Apolinario said.
The Taguig City police deployed 20 men, while the Southern Police District fielded “a platoon size” force consisting of 25 to 30 men, Southern Police District deputy director for operations Senior Superintendent Federico Castro Jr. said.
Meanwhile, an organization of migrant Filipino workers is pushing for hospital arrest for Arroyo.
“Now, it’s Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s and her husband’s time to be under hospital arrest,” John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator, said.
“The issue is not solely about Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s right to travel as a citizen. It must be viewed in the context that she was a former president and her husband alleged to have committed numerous graft and corruption activities and election sabotage, among others,” Monterona added.
Monterona said the Arroyos appeared to be using the Supreme Court as their “last line of defense” against a possible avalanche of criminal cases. With Mayen Jaymalin, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Marvin Sy, Aie Balagtas See