MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Justice (DOJ) issued another order yesterday placing former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo in the immigration watchlist.
The issuance of the order came just as the Arroyos were preparing to travel abroad to seek medical treatment for the former president’s rare disease in her cervical spine. The couple reportedly planned to make the trip on Nov. 1. The order, in effect, extends the first watchlist order issued against Mrs. Arroyo in connection with the three plunder charges she is facing. The order is valid for 60 days.
Mr. Arroyo said he would sue Justice Secretary Leila de Lima for gross ignorance of the law and grave abuse of authority.
The latest watchlist order was issued through Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras III as part of the preliminary investigation into the couple’s alleged involvement in elections cheating in 2007.
Justice and elections officials are jointly conducting the preliminary investigation.
The second watchlist order also effectively revived an earlier one against the former first gentleman, which has since been lifted.
The first watchlist order against Mr. Arroyo stemmed from his alleged anomalous sale of helicopters to the Philippine National Police in 2009.
Mr. Arroyo had argued that DOJ Circular No. 41, which provides for motu proprio issuance of watchlist order by the DOJ chief, violated his constitutional right to travel, to due process, and to equal protection of the subjects of the order.
“We stand by the constitutionality of DC No. 41. It remains valid since it was not nullified by the Supreme Court,” De Lima told reporters earlier.
“The DOJ is the chief implementer of the country’s criminal justice system. What I’m doing is just implementing the rules,” the DOJ chief explained.
De Lima said anyone in the watchlist order would have to apply for an allow departure order from the DOJ before he or she could be allowed to leave the country.
De Lima said she would decide today on Mrs. Arroyo’s application for allow departure order. Mr. Arroyo, on the other hand, does not have any application and may not be able to make the trip on Monday.
His lawyer Ferdinand Topacio called the order “most cruel and inhuman, and evinces a lack of compassion and common human decency in the leaders of the present administration.”
“President Aquino must be reminded that even during Martial Law during the height of the Marcos rule which the Aquinos and their allies have consistently denounced and even at present continue to demonize, the Aquino family was allowed to leave to join Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. for medical attention in the United States,” Topacio said in a statement.
“It is thus most execrable for the present government to accord such treatment to the Arroyos that is worse than what they experienced during the Marcos administration,” he said.
Aside from the Arroyos, also placed on the watchlist were former elections chief Benjamin Abalos Sr., former commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, detained former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., former provincial administrator Norie Unas, former provincial election supervisor Lintang Bedol, and 19 election officers and assistants.
Also covered by the watchlist order were lawyer Jaime Paz, former Justice secretary Alberto Agra, regional poll director lawyer Michael Abas, Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Region XII director Col. Reuben Basiao, a certain Major Joey Leaban and Capt. Peter Reyes, and former poll supervisors Lilian Radam and Yogie Martirizar.
Ignorance of the law
Mr. Arroyo, meanwhile, yesterday vowed to sue De Lima for violating the Constitution with her issuance of an order placing him and his wife in the immigration watchlist
“We will question this highly illegal order and file a case against Secretary De Lima for gross ignorance of the law and grave abuse of authority because it sets a dangerous precedent to all those who may find themselves in the receiving end of this government’s reckless attacks,” Mr. Arroyo said in a text message.
“This administration is proving to be ruthless in its regard for the rights and welfare of the people, most especially the Arroyos,” Mr. Arroyo said.
He pointed out that De Lima’s justification for her move was the filing of an electoral sabotage case against him by her former client Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III.
“Why the haste? Is Secretary Leila de Lima following orders from a former client? Is she still the lawyer of Senator Pimentel?” he said.
He said De Lima’s action “has shown this administration’s callous obsession to further malign us before the public at the expense of our institutions’ due process and justice.”
Topacio said De Lima’s placing his client in the watchlist order “prevents Mr. Arroyo from discharging his marital obligation to stand by his wife ‘in sickness and in health’ and deprives the former President of the moral support of her complete family.”
Allies’ concern
De Lima’s order also drew criticism from two administration allies in the Senate, Senators Franklin Drilon and Francis Escudero.
“The watchlist, which has the effect of a hold departure order, is illegal. In my opinion, the watchlist order, which prevents a citizen from traveling, is a violation of the Constitution,” Sen. Franklin Drilon, a former Justice secretary, said.
“The right to travel is a constitutional right and a restriction on the right to travel in the guise of a watchlist order is also illegal,” he added.
He said the former President has not been charged in court and hence cannot be barred from traveling abroad.
Assistant Chief State Counsel Pastor Benavidez, during a public hearing at the Senate yesterday, admitted that a hold departure order may only be issued by the regular courts.
“Therefore a hold departure order issued by the Justice Secretary, to me, has no legal basis,” Drilon said.
He also said it was wrong for De Lima to invoke as basis for her issuance an Arroyo-era DOJ circular.
“She (de Lima) should revoke the circular issued by the previous administration because it cannot be supported by the provisions of the Bill of Rights. It’s repugnant to the provisions of the Constitution on the right to travel,” he said.
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By: Edu Punay
Source: The Philippine Star, October 28, 2011
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