GMA booked on poll sabotage charges

MANILA, Philippines - A day after being served an arrest warrant, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday had her fingerprints and mugshot taken in her suite at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City, where she is under police guard.

Pasay City Regional Trial Court Judge Jesus Mupas issued a warrant for Arroyo’s arrest just before she was scheduled to fly to Singapore after the Supreme Court upheld its earlier suspension of the government’s travel ban on her and her husband Jose Miguel.

Her arrest comes 18 months after President Aquino won an election by vowing to fight corruption and prosecuting those responsible for it, and particularly pursue Arroyo. Arroyo, 64, had sought medical treatment abroad for a spine condition, but the Department of Justice turned down her request on suspicion that she wanted to evade investigation and possible prosecution.

Arroyo, president from 2001-2010, has consistently denied the allegations against her.

The alleged vote rigging happened in Maguindanao, where all 12 pro-Arroyo Senate candidates won a clean sweep of the province at midterm elections in 2007, at odds with national trends. The charges carry a life sentence.

Arroyo also faces allegations of fraud over a 2004 presidential election and corruption in her administration, which the government is still investigating.

Arroyo’s predecessor, Joseph Estrada called Arroyo’s arrest “karma” and said he hoped she would recover her health to face the charges.

“She should be made accountable not only for electoral sabotage but also corruption,” he said from Singapore.

Arroyo took office in 2001 when Estrada was forced from power, and prosecuted him for corruption. In 2007, Estrada was convicted of plunder and sentenced to life imprisonment, but Arroyo pardoned him.

Arroyo has not been seen in public since Tuesday night, when, following the initial Supreme Court decision to lift her travel ban, she had turned up at the airport in a wheelchair and her neck in a brace.

Immigration authorities stopped her and her husband from boarding a flight, and she has since been in the hospital.

Tomorrow, Judge Mupas will hear a separate petition to issue a hold departure order, which could permanently prevent Arroyo from leaving the country.

Not at SLMC

A hospital arrest for Arroyo should be at a government hospital and not at SLMC, Senate President Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada said yesterday.

“If they will ask me, the court must detain her in a government facility or hospital such as the Veterans or V. Luna,” Estrada said.

He said that an accused “who has committed grave misdeeds” should not be allowed to dictate where he or she wants to be detained.

Estrada did not hide his anger over what he and his father, former President Joseph Estrada had undergone in the aftermath of EDSA 2. Father and son were arrested and detained. The public was shown images of the elder Estrada being fingerprinted and made to pose for a mug shot. The senator said the scenario enraged many people, but he said Arroyo is unlikely to stir the same outrage if subjected to the same police procedure.

“The people will be happy. She does not have the clout to stage a people power, no way. She’s the most unpopular president,” Estrada said.

Estrada expressed optimism that the cases against Arroyo will prosper and that justice will finally be served.

While he believed that the role Arroyo played in the alleged cheating in the 2004 elections would further pin her down, Estrada said a conviction in the electoral sabotage case in relation to the 2007 elections would be good enough.

“It was karma. What goes around comes around. We followed the rule of law, they trampled upon the law and our rights before when they sent us to jail,” Estrada said.

“Before it was a fake president that jailed a true president, it’s about time that a true president sends to jail a fake president,” he added.

He said his father did not have to be thankful to Arroyo for pardoning her in 2007 because “she stole the presidency from President Erap.”

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a staunch critic of Arroyo, wants lenient treatment for Arroyo.

“That much humanitarian treatment should be accorded to a sick respondent who happens to be a former president. As long as her doctors recommend that she’s not strong or healthy enough to stay in a detention facility, she should be allowed to be under hospital arrest,” Lacson said.

Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos, a vocal supporter of Arroyo, decried the treatment the former president received from authorities.

“President Arroyo is already down and the Filipino people are still kicking her. That is too much,” he said.

Meanwhile, Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP) co-chairperson Sister Mary John Mananzan said that the filing of a case against Arroyo would help the nation in its quest for justice.

She also said there was nothing irregular with the filing of the case against Arroyo. “I think it diffused a possible confrontation at the airport. I hope it will begin a process toward peace.” With Evelyn Macairan, Marvin Sy