AILING GLORIA Lawyer Estelito Mendoza presents this photo of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wearing a 3-kg steel brace during Tuesday’s press conference in Makati City. Arroyo’s lawyers are asking the government to let their client go abroad for medical treatment. JOAN BONDOC
Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is facing several cases of plunder and electoral sabotage, both nonbailable offenses punishable by life imprisonment, may start looking for local medical specialists to take care of her reportedly rare bone ailment.
Invoking the primacy of national interest over individual rights, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima Tuesday slammed the door on Arroyo’s plan to seek medical treatment abroad.
“My order is a denial of the request for an allow-departure order (ADO),” De Lima announced at a news briefing.
She said she was not convinced that there was an exceptional reason or justification for the justice department to grant the request.
De Lima noted that the assessment of Health Secretary Enrique Ona of Arroyo’s condition showed that “there is no compelling or immediate necessity to seek treatment abroad.”
“Between national interest and one’s constitutional rights, which is more important? It’s certainly the interest of the state,” she said.
De Lima also noted the “varying changes” in the list of countries that Arroyo, now a Pampanga representative, intended to visit.
In the letter Arroyo sent to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on November 2, there was “no indication” that the former President had finalized her itinerary abroad which her camp listed as “medical consultations” in Singapore, Germany and Spain, according to De Lima.
In her three previous letters to De Lima, Arroyo said she was planning to seek treatment in the United States, Singapore, Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.
“If her condition is that bad, why go to several destinations? That ambivalence on their part with respect to the specifications of countries of destination casts certain doubts,” De Lima said.
No extradition pacts
De Lima expressed her concern that the countries that Arroyo listed had no existing extradition treaties with the Philippines.
“There lies a real risk there, something I cannot risk to take at this point,” she said.
In justifying the issuance of the watch-list order against Arroyo, De Lima cited as example the departure of Ma. Ramona “Mara” Bautista, a primary suspect in the murder of her brother Ramgen Bautista.
“Are we going to allow respondents in criminal cases go scot-free, flee the country and therefore, evade and be beyond the reach of the judicial processes?” she asked.
De Lima said she denied for lack of merit Arroyo’s request for an ADO.
“To grant (Arroyo’s) ADO based on her spokesperson’s claim of her unconditional right to travel is to violate the state’s power to demand the satisfaction of her obligation to answer to criminal charges,” the order read.
“In the end, the state cannot be rendered powerless by the false invocation of a right the protection and guarantee of which … relies on the very same efficient of said power by the state.”
Appeal to high court
Before De Lima announced her decision to bar Arroyo from traveling overseas, the former President yesterday asked the Supreme Court to allow her to travel abroad for medical purposes and to nullify the DOJ watch-list order against her.
Arroyo, through her lawyer Estelito Mendoza, said her right to travel, which is guaranteed by the Constitution, should not be impaired because she has not yet been charged in court.
“The Constitution says the right to travel may not be impaired except upon lawful order by the court or by reason of national security, public safety or public health as may be provided by law,” Mendoza told reporters at a press conference in Makati City.
He said “no such law has been enacted and Ms Arroyo has not yet been charged in court, and no probable cause for any crime has even been determined against her.”
While it was true that Arroyo had yet to be formally indicted, De Lima said the preliminary investigation being conducted by the DOJ on several criminal complaints filed against her was part of the “process.”
Plunder suits
De Lima said Arroyo was named respondent in three plunder suits and two cases of electoral sabotage filed in the DOJ.
The plunder charges stemmed from the alleged misuse of fertilizer and overseas workers funds, and the questionable sale of the Iloilo airport. In the electoral sabotage cases, Arroyo was accused of “giving direct instructions” to rig the results of the 2007 midterm elections in Maguindanao.
Quest for closure
De Lima said ensuring Arroyo’s presence in all the preliminary hearings was part of the Aquino administration’s “quest for closure.”
“We need to attain closure for all of these cases which are not ordinary cases. These are high crimes which a (former) President is accused of committing,” the justice secretary said.
“The Filipino people are also waiting for closure. So while we are generally softhearted, we must balance justice with compassion,” she added.
Discrepancies
De Lima also cited “some discrepancies” in the medical abstracts that Arroyo’s camp had attached to her three separate requests for an allow-departure orders she submitted to the DOJ last month.
Quoting Ona, she said the only life-threatening medical procedures that the former President must undergo were the operations she had on her cervical spine.
Since the medical procedures, De Lima said the health secretary reported that Arroyo had been “recuperating fairly well because of local doctors using local facilities.”
She said Ona’s assessment of Arroyo’s condition was based on his “objective reading” of the medical abstracts prepared by Dr. Roberto Mirasol and Dr. Mario Ver of St. Luke’s Medical Center.
Degenerative condition
At 66, Arroyo is suffering from cervical spondylosis, also called neck arthritis, a degenerative condition of the cartilage and bones common to aging adults.
Doctors said the condition was caused by the chronic wearing away of the cervical spine, for which Arroyo underwent three rounds of surgery between July and August.
Replying to critics who said that local doctors could treat Arroyo, Mendoza said the right of a patient to choose his doctor was part of the liberty of a person.
“Certainly what she would like to do is find out from other doctors whether this treatment can be shortened so she can live a normal life. I think what is at stake is not just liberty but life itself,” he said.
Convenient excuse
De Lima turned down the appeal for compassion by Arroyo’s relatives and political allies.
Told that several lawmakers allied with President Aquino were open to Arroyo’s foreign travel based on humanitarian grounds, she said: “Compassion and humanitarian grounds are a convenient excuse. But if we always concede to that, then we will not have a solid justice system.”
De Lima said compassion should be tempered with justice.
“Justice cannot be always based on humanitarian considerations or compassion. There should also be more substantial and vital considerations,” she said.
Also on Tuesday, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, husband of the former President, sought the intervention of the Supreme Court in challenging De Lima’s authority to bar him from leaving the country without any court-sanctioned travel order.