QC court allows Mikey to travel

MANILA, Philippines - A Quezon City court has allowed Ang Galing party-list Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo to travel to the United States despite pending tax evasion cases against him and his wife Angela.

Regional Trial Court Judge Marie Christine Jacob, who is hearing the tax evasion charges against the lawmaker and his wife, allowed Arroyo’s “semi-official business” trip to the US from Nov. 14 to Dec. 7 but raised the bail bond for each of the three counts of tax evasion to P60,000 from P20,000.

Since the order was released only yesterday, Arroyo would be able to make the trip on Nov. 16, his lawyer Ruy Rondain said. He said his client had already posted P60,000 bond and would only have to deliver P120,000 more to complete the total bond of P180,000.

The lawmaker is scheduled to meet with members of the Filipino community in Southern California to solicit donations for his constituents’ medicines.

“The court correctly found that the unconstitutional right to travel of Juan Miguel M. Arroyo may not be impaired or restricted at this stage of the proceedings (as there exists) no threat to national security, public safety, or public health to warrant a contrary finding,” Rondain told The STAR in a text message.

The lawmaker “must show proof of travel within 72 hours from return to Manila,” Rondain said quoting the court order.

“The prosecutors were saying that there is no pressing need for him to leave the country but I told them that ‘let’s put things in its correct perspective.’ We’re talking about a person’s right to travel and the court upheld that,” he said in a telephone interview.

The couple was charged by the Bureau of Internal Revenue for failing to pay taxes amounting to a total of P73.8 million in connection with the sale and purchase of various properties in the US and in the country as well as pieces of jewelry, vehicles and shares of stocks.

The permission was granted amid an ongoing legal and media war waged by the lawyers of his mother, former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo over the refusal of President Aquino to allow her to seek medical treatment abroad.

Mrs. Arroyo is facing a string a plunder complaints as well as an electoral sabotage complaint.

Reports said the House of Representatives has approved the younger Arroyo’s request for permission to travel to San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The scheduled arraignment for tax evasion on Wednesday has been postponed to Jan. 18 next year.

The Ang Galing Pinoy party-list representative and his wife had earlier filed an omnibus motion to defer his arraignment for tax evasion pending the Department of Justice’s ruling on an appeal.

They had asked the DOJ to reverse its initial finding of probable cause to justify the filing of tax evasion raps against them.

Meanwhile, Malacañang expressed optimism that the Supreme Court would issue a fair judgment on the petition filed by former president Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on DOJ’s travel restriction.

“We’ve always expected the Supreme Court to be fair and independent-minded when it comes to issues that confront them... and in this particular issue, we hope that they will see the merits of our arguments and see that the government’s response is reasonable and reflects the sentiments of the Filipino people as a whole,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a press briefing in Malacañang.

Arroyo, now Pampanga second district representative, and her husband Mike are seeking a TRO on the watchlist order issued against them by the justice department. The former leader wants to leave abroad to seek medical treatment. – With Aurea Calica