Arroyos should face music, like Estrada did

The mad dash to the airport of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband, Mike, last Nov. 15 was very much like the frenzied sprint of the American outlaw couple, Bonnie and Clyde, to evade pursuing lawmen. As Bonnie and Clyde got  their comeuppance, so are the Arroyos about to be given their just punishment for the high crimes they are accused of.

Already, there are calls for People Power to stop the Arroyos from leaving the country. They tried to board a flight for Hong Kong and would have been successful had not Justice Secretary Leila de Lima ordered immigration and airport officials to enforce the watch-list order (WLO) she had issued against them.

The Aquino administration has shown a firm political will to ensure that the Arroyos are here in the country to face the plunder, graft and corruption and electoral sabotage charges against them.

“How can you pity the Arroyos when it is clear they want to escape? The ink on the TRO had barely dried and they had already booked for six flights abroad,” said my neighborhood news dealer in Filipino.

The doctors have said the former president is not afflicted by a life-threatening illness, but by one that could be treated here.

To be sure, the Arroyos would always try to leave the country, threatening those who would stand in their way with every legal action their millions of pesos in ill-gotten wealth could muster.

The Aquino administration needs the full support of the people because the quest for justice pertaining to cheating in the 2004 and 2007 elections and the millions of pesos in public funds that had been squandered during the past administration cannot be ignored any longer.

I’m not saying that the Arroyos are guilty of the charges pending litigation, but they should just face the accusations like what former President Joseph Estrada did.

Erap was given the option to leave the country and go into voluntary exile, yet he did not leave and instead chose to spend time in jail fighting the charges against him.

The Arroyos cannot expect sympathy from the public when all the signals they are sending point to the possibility that they would never return to the Philippines to face the charges against them once they are allowed to leave.

Why are they going to countries with which the Philippines has no extradition pact if not for the obvious reason of escaping the long arm of the law?

—JUAN BUSTAMANTE, [email protected]