The Arroyos are again pulling another big fraud on Juan de la Cruz. Even dimwits can tell that Gloria and Mike Arroyo want to avoid and evade the plunder and election fraud charges against them. They are in a very deep hole. Fleeing the country is the ultimate quick-fix they need to do desperately.
Gloria and Mike saw the fire coming to them. Gloria had to stay suddenly in the hospital to seek treatment of ailments, most of which people think are exaggerated, made up, or both. Her condition was made to look so serious that even the state-of-the-art St. Luke’s Hospital cannot treat her.
So far, she has been acting out the drama as if only the village idiot cannot grasp what is really going on. In the first place, her medical problems, if any, are known to be the type that can be treated easily by any local surgeon and endocrinologist. To allow the Arroyos to go abroad is like letting loose two big stinking rats into the wilderness. It will lead to a game of hide-and-seek. But we will never see them again. “Catch us if you can” will be the name of the game.
She claims that her and her husband’s constitutional right to travel is being violated by a watch-list order (WLO). It is true that every citizen has the right to travel to any place in or outside the country, but this right is not absolute and may be limited on valid, legal grounds—the strongest of which is the “police power of the state,” the inherent power of the government to exercise reasonable control over persons and property within its jurisdiction in the interest of the general security, health, safety, morals and welfare of the people.
This rule is etched in our Constitution and is one of the time-honored inherent and intrinsic powers of the state to protect itself from destruction, and to promote and uphold social justice, peace, security and public order.
We don’t care if some people grumble about the alleged violation of their constitutional right to travel because common sense, the core of every social, ethical, doctrinal and legal precept, dictates that such right (to travel) cannot be invoked by people accused of having breached the law and there is enough showing of probable cause that they may be guilty. Therefore, they must be banned from leaving the country.
Of course, the Arroyos may still have an ace up their sleeve. Most of the Supreme Court justices are her appointees. Will they demand for a payback? Let’s wait and see.
—MANUEL BIASON, Esq.,
mannybiason@verizon.net