Palace says offer stands, finds Mike Arroyo’s dare ridiculous

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang is sticking to its offer to fly in medical specialists at full government expense to treat former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo even after her husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, dared President Benigno Aquino himself to accompany the former first couple in their travel abroad.

But Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda dismissed as “ridiculous” and “flippant” the challenge thrown at Malacañang by Mike Arroyo to prove they would not evade prosecution.

“That is something that was offered as a ridiculous proposition so we find that counteroffer not responsive,” Lacierda said in a press briefing Friday. “They have made a rather confabulated counteroffer which is really quite flippant with the way it was offered.”

Lacierda said that being the husband of a former president, Mike Arroyo should know “the schedule of a working president.” He made it clear that the Malacañang offer stood and “we will bring in the specialist of her choice.”

Administration Senator Francis Pangilinan expressed outrage over Mike Arroyo’s counter-proposal.

“This corrupted sense of entitlement speaks volumes of how this couple treats high public office. How dare they view the office of the President as some sort of butler service they can avail of to attend to their personal needs?” he said in a statement.

“The President has infinitely more important things to attend to than act as ‘alalay’ (aide) to the Arroyos. Enough is enough. Their abusive and corrupted ways should be exposed and opposed,” he added.

But Lacierda would not say how much the Aquino administration was willing to spend exactly for the medical treatment of Arroyo. Now a congresswoman, Arroyo is among the wealthiest members of the House of Representatives.

The Palace proposal earlier drew criticisms, particularly in social networking sites, arguing that the government should not use taxpayers’ money for someone like Arroyo, who could obviously shoulder her own medical expenses.

Lacierda also seemed to avoid the argument raised by Arroyo’s supporters that the Aquino administration would not live with its conscience clear in the event that her condition deteriorated.

He said: “That’s a good question. That was part of the discussion. In fact, the conclusion as stated by (Health) Secretary (Enrique) Ona is it’s not life-threatening. In fact, in the medical abstract that he saw, the medical condition was improving. She was taking treatment for that and apparently, her condition was improving.”

Four senators on Thursday backed Arroyo’s bid to seek medical treatment abroad, arguing that her right to travel was guaranteed by the Constitution. They noted that no case had been filed against Arroyo in court, which is empowered to issue a hold-departure order.

Lacierda declined to comment on the option raised Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, constitutionalist, that Arroyo could elevate her case before the United Nation’s Human Rights Commission later on.

“I think Senator Miriam should advise the Arroyos if that’s the tact that they should take. We will not comment on that,” he said.

Justice Secretary Leila De Lima on Thursday released an unverified piece of information that Arroyo was supposedly planning to escape and seek political asylum in the Dominican Republic.

Lacierda said the Palace learned about the tip from De Lima herself. He said Malacañang did not have related information, which became a factor in the decision to bar Arroyo from leaving the country.

“We were informed by Secretary Leila de Lima of that unverified information,” he said. “But apart from that—as we have stated before and also as laid out by the reason stated by Secretary Leila de Lima—the request of Representative [Gloria Macapagal-] Arroyo was very ambiguous at best.”

Lacierda added: “They were not able to identify the (medical) specialists. They kept on changing the countries of choice or countries of destination. This gave rise to suspicions also as to the nature and the purpose of their travel abroad.”