Ignacio Arroyo’s daughter to bring her dad home, says former FG

The remains of Negros Occidental Representative Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo will be brought home by his eldest child, Bianca, and not by his estranged second wife Alicia “Aleli” Arroyo or his longtime companion Grace Ibuna, the lawmaker’s brother said Sunday.

In a phone interview, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, husband of former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said Bianca was scheduled to talk with the London coroner on Monday to seek the release of his younger brother’s body which would be flown into the country intact and not cremated.

Bianca is the only child of Iggy and his first wife, Marilyn Jacinto, sister of entertainer Ramon “RJ” Jacinto.

But lawyer Lorna Kapunan, Aleli’s legal counsel, said Bianca could not take charge of repatriating his father’s body because Ibuna had obtained a court order in the United Kingdom declaring her Iggy’s next of kin and barring Aleli from taking hold of the body.

Ibuna was at Iggy’s bedside when he was taken off life support on January 26. Iggy had sought treatment for cirrhosis of the liver in London.

“We don’t know if they (Mike and Bianca) know that there is a court order unless they are working together with Ibuna. They should just say it straight out. I don’t think Grace Ibuna is intelligent enough to make these maneuvers,” Kapunan told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Kapunan accompanied Aleli to London last week with the goal of bringing home Iggy’s body to the Philippines on Saturday.

The two came home empty-handed after solicitors of Ibuna served them papers preventing them from removing the body, which was frozen in a box at a London funeral parlor.

Kapunan said Aleli had not been able to see Iggy’s remains.

The lawyer claimed that Aleli and Bianca had a meeting in front of  Philippine consular officials the night before they went to the funeral parlor.

Among the things they ironed out was that a funeral parlor in the country would receive Iggy’s body from the United Kingdom. “We have to name a Philippine consignee which the London funeral parlor can coordinate with. Aleli wanted Loyola in Marikina City, but Bianca wanted Arlington, so we agreed with her (Bianca),” Kapunan said.

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