Iggy tells wife not to use daughter as pawn in marital spat

Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio Arroyo on Friday denied the charges of his estranged wife Alicia, saying she should not drag their "domestic" troubles into a public circus. "I am deeply saddened that she has used my daughter as pawn…to gain leverage against me. I will not engage her in a public debate of our domestic troubles," Arroyo said in a television interview. A Quezon City lower court ordered the younger brother of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo to keep distance from his wife Alicia and their nine-year-old daughter and other household members. Alicia, former chairperson of the Philippine Stock Exchange, has claimed that Arroyo abandoned them in June 2006 to live with his mistress. Arroyo, who had earlier claimed to be Jose Pidal, was also an excessive smoker, drinker and gambler, Alicia said in her answer to her husband’s petition for child custody before the court. But Arroyo, 56, denied his estranged wife’s charges and appealed to the public to consider his daughter’s welfare. "My daughter cannot see me because of the devious acts of her mother," Arroyo said. The court order stemmed from a custody petition which the solon filed last month. In his petition, he asked Judge Rosalina Luna Pison of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 107 to grant him and Alicia equal custody, visit and parental rights over their daughter. Alicia fought back by claiming in her 17-page answer that she fears for her life and that of her daughter because Arroyo belongs to the most powerful political family in the country. Arroyo said Alicia defied the court’s order to treat the case with confidentiality. He refused to comment on Alicia’s claim of his "excessive lifestyle," adding his lawyers are already studying the case. "Aleli has made a circus and a mockery of this otherwise sad affair for obvious reasons," he said. When asked on the comments of his sister-in-law President Gloria Arroyo on the case, he said the issue is a purely domestic dispute that should not involve the President. Alicia is reportedly close to the President. Reelection As his domestic dispute looms, Arroyo said he is still undecided if he would seek reelection this May. Arroyo, a first-termer, said he is still conducting consultations with his constituents in the fifth district of Negros Occidental. He also urged his constituents to judge him for his accomplishments and not for his private life. In a phone interview with GMANews.TV, Arroyo expressed confidence his marital woes would not diminish public support if he runs again. He affirmed he would appear at the preliminary hearing of the custody case on March 29. In September 2003, Arroyo confessed he was the Jose Pidal who owned multi-million peso bank accounts which Sen. Panfilo Lacson said belonged to the First Gentleman. Arroyo, then a businessman, invoked his right to privacy when the Senate probed that the money, amounting to P260 million, was laundered for campaigns. Arroyo has two daughters from his first marriage, which has been annulled. - GMANews.TV