Cop says Arroyo mugshots on Internet authentic

MANILA, Philippines - A police official today confirmed that the mugshots of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo circulating on the Internet are authentic.

Senior Superintendent James Bucayu, acting chief of the Southern Police District (SPD), said that their investigator confirmed to him that the mugshots provided to them by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and those posted by www.mugshots.com are the same.

Bucayu, meanwhile, denied that mugshots leaked from the SPD. He added that he has ordered an investigation into the mugshots' distribution in the Internet.

He said that after Mrs. Arroyo's booking last Saturday, he issued an order to all the units involved not to leak the mugshots to the media.

He reiterated that only the Pasay City Regional Trial Court, where Mrs. Arroyo's electoral sabotage case is pending, has the sole authority to allow the release of the booking photos.

Earlier, Interior and Local Governments Secretary Jesse Robredo denied the authenticity of the mugshots that are circulating in the Internet.

Bucayu, however, was sure about the authenticity of the spreading mugshots of Mrs. Arroyo.

He said that only the SPD, CIDG and the Pasay City local court has copies of the mugshots.

Bucayu had said that the mugshots were taken by members of the CIDG at the hospital suite of Mrs. Arroyo at St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig City last Saturday afternoon.

He said that Mrs. Arroyo was sitting on her hospital bed and was assisted by lady police officers during the whole process. He said the lady police officers also took the former president's fingerprints.

The police officer had described Mrs. Arroyo during the taking of the mugshots as wearing a hospital gown and a neck and head brace. He added that the nameplate with the criminal case number was held by a lady police officer during the photo-taking process.

The camp of Mrs. Arroyo had pleaded to the media not to release the mugshots to the public out of courtesy to a former president.

"If you get a copy, please don't shame her. We appeal to everyone's sense of discretion on decency," lawyer Ferdinand Topacio told reporters on Saturday.

He added that the former president should be treated "with the dignity due her as a former head of state."

'Photoshopped' picture

For his part, Robredo reiterated that the mugshots of Arroyo that went viral over the Internet were not the same photos the police have submitted to the Pasay City Regional Trial Court.

 “Former President Arroyo’s mug shot taken from her hospital bed at the St. Luke’s Hospital in Taguig which have been circulated in the Internet is different from what the PNP CIDG had taken,” the DILG chief said.

According to Robredo, the official mug shot of the former President taken by the CIDG last Saturday, a copy of which was submitted to him, bears all the case details on the “information booking plate.”

“The information booking plate of the original mug shot photo of the former President contains her name: Gloria Arroyo Y Macapagal, the Republic Act or electoral sabotage case she violated and the case number from the Pasay City Regional Trial Court,” he said.

“Based on what has appeared in the Internet, it appeared that the booking numbers below the published photos were ‘photo-shopped’ and are different from the reports submitted to me,” he added.

Earlier, when asked if Arroyo’s camp would attempt to stop any moves to have her mug shots released, her counsel Jose Flaminiano said her camp “won’t bother to file a motion regarding that issue.” 

The Pasay City court has stated that Mrs. Arroyo’s mug shots will not be released unless both the prosecution and defense panels agree. The mug shots are deemed property of the police and are not public property.

When the former President’s mug shot photos were taken, there were only seven persons present, and they include her, former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, her son Albay Rep. Dato Arroyo, a former Arroyo cabinet secretary and three personnel from the PNP CIDG.

Acting Southern Police District Director Sr. Supt. James Bucayu, who confirmed that the published mug shots were authentic, was not around when the booking photos were taken.