DOJ-Comelec panel to subpoena Rep. Gloria Arroyo on Tuesday

The joint Department of Justice-Commission on Elections (DOJ-Comelec) panel is set to subpoena on Tuesday former President and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in connection with the alleged cheating in the 2007 elections. According to a report on GMA News' "24 Oras" on Monday, the panel will also subpoena Arroyo's husband, Jose Miguel, and some 40 others. The report said the panel will treat separately the electoral sabotage complaint it filed and the one filed by Sen. Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III against the former President and her co-respondents. Mrs. Arroyo was accused of orchestrating the manipulation of election results in 2007 to favor senatorial candidates under her ticket. Her camp had repeatedly denied the allegation. The "24 Oras" report quoted Mrs. Arroyo's legal spokesperson, Raul Lambino, as saying that they are ready to answer the complaints.

Mr. Arroyo, for his part, accused Malacañang of "destroying" the independence of the Comelec and turning it into a "puppet." "The pronouncements of Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda that the filing of charges against the Arroyos ‘is an order from President [Benigno] Aquino [III] and that government officials are supposed to carry it out,’ is something that goes beyond scary, because it turns the COMELEC into a puppet of Malacanang and subject to its dictates," said Ferdinand Topacio, Mr. Arroyo's counsel. He also said that the creation of the DOJ-Comelec joint panel through Joint Order No. 001-2011 is "legally impermissible," noting that the DOJ is part of the executive branch while the Comelec is a constitutionally independent body. "Whoever conceived of that joint order must have been smoking a joint," Topacio said. — KBK, GMA News