The Department of Justice on Thursday placed under government watch list more than 40 people accused of electoral sabotage in the 2007 elections, including former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo.
Based on the 10-page watch list order issued by DOJ Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras III, the 40 names were taken from the list of the joint panel probing the supposed 2007 poll fraud in North Cotabato, South Cotabato, and Maguindanao.
Paras said immigration officials in Manila "are hereby ordered to include on the Bureau of Immigration watch list the names of the above-named persons."
He said the order would be valid for two months or 60 days from today (October 27) "unless sooner terminated or otherwise extended."
Two watch list orders were issued at the same time: one including the names of respondents in an electoral sabotage case against former Comelec chairman Abalos and 35 others for supposed poll fraud in North Cotabato, South Cotabato, and Maguindanao.
A second watch list order, which basically places the same individuals named on the first – plus five other names – pertained to an electoral complaint filed by Sen. Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III.
Apart from the Arroyo couple and Abalos, other individuals also named in the order were: former Maguidnanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr,
former Justice Secretary Alberto Agra,
former Comelec commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer,
former Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol,
former Maguindanao administrator Norie Unas, and
Col. Reuben Basiao, formerly of the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Ampatuan is currently detained inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City on multiple charges of murder in connection with the November 23, 2009 killings of 57 people in Barangay Salman in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao.
Also included on the watch list were several election officers and assistants who participated in the conduct of the respective elections in the three Mindanao provinces.
Arroyo is being probed "for giving direct instructions to manipulate the results of the senatorial elections in Maguindanao by ordering Governor Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr to implement a 12-0 result in the Province of Maguindanao in favor of the Team Unity Senatorial candidates, and alter or change the results if necessary."
Andal Sr, meanwhile, was included in the investigation for "conniving" with Mrs. Arroyo and giving direct orders "to implement at all cost in his province [Arroyo's] 12-0 instruction in favor of the Team Unity Senatorial candidates."
Agra was likewise recommended for preliminary investigation "for covering up the manipulation of the election results in South and North Cotabato." — LBG, GMA New
