Case of electoral sabotage against Arroyo

Earlier in the day, the Comelec voted 5-2 to approve the filing of a case of electoral sabotage against Arroyo. Mike Arroyo was not named as a respondent in the case "for insufficiency of evidence to establish probable cause." The decision of the Comelec sitting in full session was made following deliberations early Friday, a few hours before the Supreme Court was to resolve questions on the TRO it issued on Tuesday on the inclusion of the former First Couple in the immigration watch list. Those who voted in favor of charging Arroyo with electoral sabotage were Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. and Commissioners Rene Sarmiento, Elias Yusoph, Christian Robert Lim and Augusto Lagman. Commissioners Lucenito Tagle and Armando Velasco did not take part in the vote, claiming they had not received earlier a copy of the 33-page resolution issued by the joint panel of the DOJ and Comelec that looked into the allegations of poll fraud in 2007.

After a meeting that lasted nearly three hours, the Comelec en banc issued a four-page resolution stating that it was approving and adopting the joint panel's resolution to file a case of electoral sabotage against Arroyo, but with a few modifications concerning other personalities investigated by the panel. It approved the filing of the same charge against former Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr.,Bedol, Ampatuan Sr. and Capt. Peter Reyes, a former military intelligence operative. In its resolution, the Comelec ordered its law department to immediately file the necessary cases "in the higher interest of justice and by reason of manifest attempts to frustrate the government's right to prosecute and to obtain speedy disposition of the present case pending before [it]." In a concurring opinion, Brillantes said he was "originally inclined" to inhibit from the deliberations but decided to "vote and concur" with the opinion of the majority in the "higher interest of justice [and] equity and as public interest highly demands." He said probable cause against Arroyo was established "specifically on her failure to submit any refuting evidence to the direct statements under oath of witnesses." With reports from Niña Calleja, Jocelyn R. Uy and Jerome Aning of PDI