De Lima: Watch list order vs Arroyo out soon

Despite the gaffe concerning the Immigration records of former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo last week, Justice Sec. Leila de Lima on Monday said she may soon order the Bureau of Immigration to place former President and current legislator Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on its watch list. Speaking to reporters, De Lima said that the watch list order may be out "in a few days." She also underscored that the DOJ has the power to place on the Immigration watch list anyone facing an investigation at the department. Arroyo is facing at least three plunder complaints before the DOJ — one involving the alleged anomalous P73 million sale of the old Iloilo airport in 2007, the other the supposed misuse of P550 million in migrant workers' welfare funds, and about P1.6 billion in Agriculture funds allegedly diverted to her campaign kitty in 2004. Arroyo's name has likewise been repeatedly dragged into the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) fund mess, which is currently being looked into by the Senate blue ribbon committee. Militant party-list group Bayan Muna has already filed plunder charges against Arroyo before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with how the PCSO allegedly became a cash cow of the Arroyo administration and its allies. De Lima has earlier floated the possibility of placing Mrs. Arroyo on the Immigration watch list. The move, however, did not push through because the former president was in Europe at that time, and weeks after her arrival in the Philippines, she underwent a surgery to correct a condition involving a pinched nerve in her spine. On Monday, De Lima said there are no more impediments to the issuance of a watch list order against the former president. "There are cases with us. That is a ground [for issuance]," she said. Immigration fiasco De Lima will make such move despite the Immigration fiasco concerning Mrs. Arroyo's husband last week. After heeding the Senate blue ribbon's request to issue a watch list order against the former First Gentleman, De Lima said that the Bureau of Immigration has no record of Mr. Arroyo's departure to Hong Kong last week. A day after, De Lima said that Mr. Arroyo did not go through the usual Immigration process because somebody else facilitated his Immigration documents. Shortly after the Justice chief made the statement, Mr. Arroyo's lawyer presented Immigration and travel documents and demanded an apology from De Lima. De Lima then offered her apology after verifying that the former First Gentleman had in fact lined up at the Immigration counter before flying to Hong Kong. De Lima added that the BI misspelled Mr. Arroyo's name when it was encoded in the BI's database. - Sophia Dedace/KBK, GMA News