SC denies motion to ban Arroyo health travel

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court on Friday denied the government’s appeal for it to lift an order allowing former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to travel abroad.

In a news briefing, court administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said that during a special session on Friday, the high tribunal upheld its 8-5 ruling granting Arroyo’s petition for a temporary restraining order against travel restrictions imposed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, calling the TRO “in full force and in effect”.

At the same time, the high court on Friday also summoned De Lima to explain why she should not be held in contempt for her refusal to implement the temporary restraining order that would have allowed the former President, who now represents Pampanga in Congress, to have traveled out of the country last Tuesday.

Marquez said the magistrates required De Lima to show cause why she should not be held in contempt for her refusal to comply with the TRO and for “disrespect” toward the high court.

Marquez said the court gave De Lima a non-extendible period of 10 days to submit her explanation.

He said the tribunal also denied the request of Arroyo’s lawyer to hold the scheduled November 22 oral argument on the case earlier.

The high tribunal on Tuesday ordered President Benigno Aquino III’s administration — which wants to put Arroyo on trial on allegations of graft and election fraud — to allow the ex-president to travel overseas for treatment.

It ruled the travel ban unconstitutional because Arroyo and her husband had not yet been charged with any crime.

But the government defied the court and she was prevented from boarding her flight to Singapore later that day. Arroyo then checked into a Manila hospital.

She had been driven to the airport in an ambulance, wearing a neck brace to support her spine, which she says is weakened by a rare bone disease.

De Lima has said the government was not violating any law and that Arroyo must be stopped from fleeing possible prosecution.

Arroyo’s spokeswoman Elena Bautista Horn said the former president may attempt to leave the country again Friday.

“If the doctors allow it, it’s an option,” Horn told GMA television.

“We will hold them [the government] responsible if something bad happens to my boss,” Horn added.

She also expressed fear that the Aquino government would rush the filing of criminal charges against Arroyo in court to justify its bid to have the Supreme Court uphold the travel ban.

Arroyo, 64, ruled the country for more than nine years until last year, when she won a seat in the lower house of parliament.

Her arch-critic Aquino won a landslide presidential election on an anti-corruption platform and has vowed to bring Arroyo to justice, but has faced repeated setbacks to his campaign.

In one of the most high-profile blows, the Supreme Court ruled in December last year that a “truth commission” Aquino set up specifically to investigate Arroyo was unconstitutional.