Palace has no right to restrict Arroyo from traveling abroad, says Lagman

MANILA, Philippines—House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman said Malacañang has no right to restrict  former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from traveling abroad to seek medical treatment for her nagging ailment because it does not involve national security, public safety, or public health.

Lagman said a person’s right to travel was enshrined in the Bill of Rights, which only restricts a person’s right to travel if it involved these three issues. He has filed House Bill  5111 entitled “An Act Upholding the Constitutional Right to Travel and Granting to the Proper Court the Exclusive Jurisdiction to Issue Hold Departure Orders” to comply with the Constitution’s mandate to enact a law guaranteeing a person’s right to travel.

Lagman issued the statement after Justice Secretary Lilia de Lima on Thursday declared she found no compelling reason for Arroyo to go abroad to seek a radical cure for “hypoparathyroidism,” a condition caused by lack of calcium production in the body, which has aggravated her neck and spine problems.

Arroyo, now a Pampanga representative, is facing electoral sabotage charges along with her husband and several others in the Department of Justice in connection with the alleged rigging of the 2007 midterm election results in Maguindanao and Cotabato provinces.

She was placed on the Bureau of Immigration watch list after a joint DOJ and Commission on Elections investigating panel recommended the filing of charges.

“It is not a question of compassion, accommodation or even health condition but a matter of the constitutional right to travel, which former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo must exercise without any impediment or restraint,” Lagman said.

He stressed that the DOJ’s watch list order was not enough to deprive Arroyo’s right to travel because it “is not equivalent to a hold departure order, which only the proper court can issue.”

“There is no criminal information filed in any court or tribunal against former (former) President Arroyo to justify the delay or denial of her right to fully exercise her freedom to travel,” Lagman said.