Mike A returns, slams 'lies'

MANILA, Philippines - Former first gentleman Jose Miguel “ Mike” Arroyo returned to the country yesterday after a weeklong medical checkup in Hong Kong and vowed to get back at the people who have implicated him in the allegedly anomalous P105-million helicopter purchase of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in 2009.

“To my detractors, I am back! You should be ashamed of yourselves for peddling lies to the public while I was away, knowing fully well that I could not confront your lies in my absence,” Arroyo said in a statement.

However, it was unlikely that he would attend the Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing on Thursday because, according to him, he was strongly advised by his doctors “to avoid stressful situations” that would aggravate his already delicate condition brought about by his open-heart surgery in 2007.

But Malacañang dared Arroyo to just face the accusations squarely and not cite health reasons to avoid the investigation.

“I hope this is not a prelude to invoking medical reasons for not appearing. We welcome his appearance in the Senate if he decides to do so and we will further welcome his being able to answer truthfully all the statements or accusations hurled against him by Mr. Archibald Po,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

Blue Ribbon chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, on the other hand, assured Arroyo that he would be given a fair chance to air his side.

“We hope that he would take this opportunity to face the allegations against him. As in previous Senate investigations, we would be mindful about his health condition during the proceedings,” Guingona said.

Arroyo may have returned to the country but his son, Ang Galing Pinoy party-list Rep. Juan Miguel, left the country last Friday for the United States allegedly to meet donors of various medical equipment for his party-list group.

Arroyo’s staff said the eldest son of the former president was able to secure a travel authority from the office of Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

His uncle, Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio, left for Hong Kong last week but returned to the country yesterday.

The trip of the clan came amidst accusations that the former first family were involved in several anomalous deals and electoral fraud in the 2004 and 2007 elections.

The former first gentleman is accused of pressuring the PNP to buy helicopters he purportedly owned and passed them off as new. He was placed under the watchlist of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) upon orders of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

Sources said Arroyo proceeded to his house in La Vista, Quezon City and met his lawyers in the afternoon for a “strategy meeting.”

“So many inflammatory and irresponsible comments have been made by senators and government officials, to include Justice Secretary De Lima, in an effort to paint me as a fugitive on the run,” he said.

He said there was no mention of his alleged involvement in the sale of the helicopters when he left for his medical checkup and he was already out of the country when Po testified in the Senate inquiry that he was the real owner of the helicopters.

“These accusations are premised on unsupported testimonies of Mr. Archibald Po who is clearly trying to escape criminal liability for defrauding the government. It is strange why certain persons in authority are now so eager to promote and to entertain such obvious nonsense,” Arroyo said.

“It is now obvious to all of us that the authorities in power have placed the highest priority in a coordinated effort, whatever it takes, to harass the previous administration for imagined transgressions,” he said.

Arroyo said he was also horrified upon learning that a young lawyer from the Development Bank of the Philippines, who was reportedly forced to give false testimony by his superiors, committed suicide.

“These DBP officials, not content with the suicide that resulted from their criminal subornation to perjury, are now apparently harassing, with unfounded cases, businessmen with long reputations of achievement and integrity whose only fault is a perceived friendship with me,” he said.

He emphasized that he has no intention of avoiding Po’s accusations and has asked his lawyers to study the filing of a complaint against him for perjury, false testimony, and offering false evidence.

Arroyo said his doctors in the country and in Hong Kong will discuss his medical condition to determine if he can withstand the pressure of the Senate inquiry.

Palace: Just keeping a close watch

But Lacierda said Arroyo should be the one to stop peddling lies, adding that the administration was not being vengeful but only aware that “those who forget the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them.”

“When we came on board, we promised to rid this country of graft and corruption. Part of it is also to unearth all the anomalies that we have discovered and we continue to discover,” he said.

De Lima, meanwhile, said the administration is not taking it easy on reports that the Arroyos are planning to seek political asylum in Portugal to evade what they claim are cases of political prosecution against them. 

She said reports on this purported plan of the Arroyo couple give the government more reason to ensure they would face charges that hounded the nine-year term of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“This is why we need precautionary measures so that the people won’t blame us in the possible case they leave and evade the charges,” she told reporters in an ambush interview.

De Lima said she plans to also place Mrs. Arroyo in the BI watchlist in connection with several plunder cases filed against her.

San Juan Rep. Jose Victor Ejercito claimed over the weekend that he received information about the Arroyos’ purported plan to seek asylum in Portugal, which does not have an extradition treaty with the Philippine government.

The “exit plan to Portugal” is reportedly to evade the cases filed and to be filed against the former first couple. The report said the couple had allegedly bought a villa in Portugal near the Spanish border.

De Lima also denied allegations that the charges against the Arroyo family are politically motivated.

“It’s not at all persecution on our part. It is the fulfillment of our mandate, our duty to determine the truth and hold people accountable for various anomalies, irregularities and graft and corruption committed by certain personalities of the previous administration,” she said. – Aurea Calica, Christina Mendez, Edu Punay