Arroyos to heed subpoenas on 2007 election sabotage

The legal counsel of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said they will comply with the subpoenas compelling the now incumbent Pampanga Representative to respond to election sabotage charges before the joint special task force of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Commission on Elections (Comelec). “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," lawyer Raul Lambino told GMA News Online in a phone interview. Lambino was quick to note that the summons did not include as attachments the documents related to the poll fraud case, as what is usually done in 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. Lambino claimed 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," Arroyo’s spokesman for legal matters said. The joint DOJ-Comelec panel set on Nov. 3 the clarificatory hearings for the preliminary investigation.
The panel issued two subpoenas to Representative Arroyo —one subpoena for each election sabotage complaint filed separately by the panel and Sen. Aquilino “Koko" Pimentel III. DOJ lawyers served the summons to members of the Pampanga congresswoman’s staff at the House of Representatives at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City. The joint panel also issued other subpoenas for former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike" Arroyo, former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos, and 40 other people implicated in the alleged poll fraud in the 2007 elections. Conniving with election officers Although Mr. Arroyo was excluded from the panel’s preliminary investigation, a subpoena was issued against 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 Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. and former Justice Secretary Alberto Agra. Subpoenas were also issued against 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 under investigation for allegedly conniving with election officers to ensure the victory of Arroyo’s senatorial bets in North and South Cotabato in the 2007 elections. 'Legally impermissible' The former First Gentleman's lawyer earlier asserted, "Malacañang is destroying the independence of the Commission on Elections and turning it into a ‘puppet…’ by creating a joint panel of the Department of Justice and the Comelec to investigate and try alleged anomalies in the 2004 and 2007 polls." Topacio said it is "legally impermissible" for the Comelec and the DOJ to constitute the joint investigative panel. Justice Secretary de Lima said that the nature of the upcoming inquiry is that of a preliminary investigation, which seeks to determine if there is probable cause that warrants filing a case against a respondent before the proper courts. De Lima explained that there was no legal impediment to the creation of the joint panel because the Comelec has the authority to probe election offenses while the DOJ has the mandate to probe violations of penal laws. Several times in the past, the Comelec and the DOJ constituted joint panels to conduct investigations. The Comelec said that the DOJ "has concurrent jurisdiction to conduct preliminary investigation of all election offenses." The Comelec also noted it often worked with the DOJ because the commission "is hampered by the want of lawyers... to handle the investigation and prosecution of election offenses." — With Andreo C. Calonzo/KBK/ELR/VS/HS, GMA News