Lawyer: Mike Arroyo's return proves SC right in issuing TRO 

The lawyer of Jose Miguel Arroyo on Friday said the former First Gentleman's return to the Philippines from Japan and Hong Kong proved the Sandigabayan and the Supreme Court right. After getting a go signal from the anti-graft court last April 25 to travel abroad, Mr. Arroyo flew in to Japan to meet with prospective Japanese investors. He returned to the country Thursday.

 

Ferdinand Topacio said his client's return showed he has no intention of escaping from the pending graft case Mr. Arroyo is facing before the Sandiganbayan in connection with  the $329.48-million botched national broadband project.

 

"He has proven the Sandiganbayan correct in placing its confidence in him by allowing him to travel abroad," Topacio said in a statement.

 

"But more importantly, he has proven the Supreme Court right in issuing a temporary restraining order against the Secretary of Justice allowing him and former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to travel," he added. Immigration watch list 

 

Mr. Arroyo was earlier placed on the Immigration watch list while he and his wife, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, were being investigated for their alleged participation in poll fraud during the 2007 elections.

 

The investigation had prompted the Arroyo couple, as represented by Topacio, to question its legality as well that of an accompanying watch list order before the Supreme Court, which has yet to issue a ruling on the matter.

 

The SC, however, issued a TRO allowing the couple to leave, but Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, claiming not having received a copy of the order on time, still barred them from leaving the airport.

 

The WLO against Mr. Arroyo has since been lifted after the Commission on Elections dismissed the poll fraud charges against him and seven others.

 

His wife, meanwhile, was charged in court and is currently under hospital arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City. Flimsy?

 

Topacio maintained that the electoral sabotage case filed against Mrs. Arroyo with a Pasay court "was extremely flimsy and was filed merely to outflank the Supreme Court in the DOJ-COMELEC Joint Committee case."

 

Topacio also insisted that had the Arroyo couple been allowed to leave the country to seek medical treatment for the former president, they would have returned to the Philippines as well.

 

"By promptly returning, even when at present he has pending court cases and criminal investigations, Atty. Arroyo has shown that he had no intention to evade criminal proceedings against him, and that his innocence gives him the courage to face baseless accusations against him head on," Topacio said.

 

Earlier this week, Mr. Arroyo sent to media via e-mail a set of six photographs showing him interacting with Filipinos in Japan.

 

"There were about 60 Filipinos who participated. This shows that my meeting with the Filipinos there was not bogus as claimed," Mr. Arroyo said at the time.

 

Topacio also made reference to his infamous offer before that he was willing to have himself castrated if the Arroyo couple did not return to the Philippines.

 

"I was proven right in betting my ‘egg’ as a sign of supreme confidence in my client that he would be true to his word as a real gentleman. It is now the present denizens of Malacanang who have ‘eggs’ on their faces," he said. — RSJ, GMA News