Gloria Arroyo summoned to poll fraud probe

(Updated 6:29 p.m.) A government joint panel on Tuesday issued subpoenas to former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, her husband Jose Miguel “Mike" Arroyo, former poll body chief Benjamin Abalos, and some 40 others implicated in supposed election irregularities in 2007. The subpoenas were served by two teams from the Department of Justice to ensure their presence in the clarificatory hearings by the joint DOJ-Commission on Elections panel next month, said Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Susan Dacanay. Two subpoenas were issued to Mrs. Arroyo, one for each election sabotage complaint filed separately by the panel and Sen. Aquilino “Koko" Pimentel III. The subpoenas were served to members of Mrs. Arroyo's staff at the House of Representatives at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City.
"We will comply" Mrs. Arroyo’s counsel, Raul Lambino, said they will comply with the subpoenas issued by the DOJ-Comelec panel. “We are going to follow the procedures, unless we see that there’s a problem in the constitutionality of what we are being asked to do," he said in a phone interview. He, however, said that he wonders why the joint government panel did not attach to the subpoena documents related to the case, as what is normally done in usual court proceedings. "I don’t know what kind of internal procedure the panel is following and why we are being required to appear to be furnished with the documents. We cannot file our counter-affidavit unless we have studied these documents," Lambino said. He further said that under the Constitution, Mrs. Arroyo is not required to attend the panel’s preliminary investigation on the poll fraud cases. "Probably, we will just send one of our lawyers to make the appearance. We still have to discuss our next moves." Mr. Arroyo Although Mr. Arroyo was excluded from the panel’s preliminary investigation, a subpoena was still issued to him in connection with Pimentel's complaint. The panel excluded Mr. Arroyo from its investigation because testimonies against him were allegedly only based on hearsay. Mr. Arroyo's subpoena was served at his office at the LTA Building in Makati City, according to his lawyer Ferdinand Topacio. Mrs. Arroyo, meanwhile, was investigated "for giving direct instruction to manipulate the results of the senatorial elections in Maguindanao." Aside from the Arroyo couple and Abalos, also subpoenaed were former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and former Justice Secretary Alberto Agra. Subpoenas were likewise issued to officials of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, namely Col. Reuben Basiao, a Major Joey Leaban, and Capt. Peter Reyes. They are all being investigated by the joint panel for allegedly conniving with election officers to ensure the victory of Arroyo’s senatorial bets in North and South Cotabato in the 2007 elections. Clarificatory hearings for the preliminary investigation are set to start on November 3. — with Andreo C. Calonzo/KBK, GMA News