Lawyer, senator Joker Arroyo, 88

MANILA, Philippines - Former senator Joker Arroyo succumbed late Monday to heart attack at a still undisclosed hospital abroad, according to highly reliable sources of The STAR. He was 88.

Arroyo represented the first district of Makati City for nine years in the 9th, 10th and 11th Congresses, from 1992 to 2001. He served as senator from 2001 to 2013.

He was known to be the most frugal member of Congress, earning him the moniker “Scrooge of Congress.” He had only three staff members: a driver, a secretary and a legislative assistant.

As a congressman and a senator, he had no bodyguards. He did not enjoy the trappings and perks of power.

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“You have to know when to stop,” he told The STAR in an interview prior to the end of his term in 2013.  He said he was not running for public position after his Senate stint.

Unknown to many, he was the only other senator who did not use his P200-million annual Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel allocation, saving taxpayers P2.4 billion over his 12-year stint in the Senate.

Like Arroyo, former senator Panfilo Lacson did not touch his pork barrel.

As a congressman, Arroyo was a critic of then Speaker Manuel Villar Jr. But the two became close friends when they became senators.

He was one of the congressmen who signed the endorsement of impeachment of President Joseph Estrada and was made the lead prosecutor for the impeachment trial in December 2000.

Arroyo was born in Naga, Camarines Sur on Jan. 5, 1927. He had been married twice. – Charmie Joy Pagulong, Jess Diaz, Christina Mendez