Mike Arroyo files urgent motion vs DOJ-Comelec probe

Former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike" Arroyo on Tuesday reiterated his request to the Supreme Court to stop the ongoing government investigation on the alleged irregularities in the 2007 elections where he and his wife, former President and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, are implicated. Mr. Arroyo’s lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, said they filed the 11-page urgent motion because the joint Department of Justice-Commission on Elections panel conducting the investigation seemed to be "railroading" the proceedings against the couple. "[We] reiterate our prayer, as contained in our Petition, for a Temporary Restraining Order to forthwith issue, enjoining and restraining all respondents, and their agents, assigns, subordinates and all persons acting under their command, from continuing to discharge any duties or performing any acts in pursuance of the subject preliminary investigation," the petitioner said. Aside from the Arroyo couple, 40 other public officials are being investigated by the panel for their supposed involvement in the manipulation of election results in 2007 allegedly to favor senatorial candidates allied with Mrs. Arroyo. Topacio said the urgent motion was filed "to seek the most immediate and speediest redress from this Honorable Court against the rushing, yet unconstitutional (violative of the equal protection clause) and gravely abusive 'Joint Department of Justice-Commission on Elections Preliminary Investigation Committee and Fact Finding Team'." Attached with the latest petition were a number of news clippings "as proofs [of] the persecutory manner by which he (Mr. Arroyo) is proceeded against through the Joint Order and Joint Committee, made obvious by the repeated prejudgments of guilt publicly made by no less than the heads of the Joint-Committee." Mr. Arroyo claimed the joint panel has repeatedly refused to furnish him of certified true copies of the joint order and its rules of procedures, as well as a copy of the initial fact-finding report of the panel that found probable cause to subject Mrs. Arroyo and the others to a preliminary investigation. "[A]ll of the foregoing are strong indicia that the proceedings conducted by the Joint Committee is a sham, hastily pursued to ensure his imprisonment with the least resistance and delay possible," the petitioner said. Topacio said the TRO should be in effect until the high court decides on the petition they filed last Friday in connection with the watch list order against the Arroyo couple. The same petition also questioned the legality of Joint Order No. 001-2011, which paved the way for the creation of DOJ-Comelec panel. - KBK, GMA News