Palace to Arroyo: Please stay home, we will not let you leave

Malacañang on Wednesday night urged former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to stay home and not attempt to leave for Singapore Thursday because she will be barred again from leaving the country.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said that Malacañang would continue to bar Arroyo until the Supreme Court decided on the merits of its case against allowing Ms. Arroyo to travel abroad to seek medical treatment.

“This is not defiance. We believe there is a process, we’re complying with the processes in the procedural law,” Lacierda told reporters.

Addressing Arroyo, Lacierda said: “We are asking former President Arroyo, we hope you’ll recover from your high blood pressure and in order to obviate and prevent an instance of high blood pressure, we would like to request President Arroyo to just rest at home, stay there in order to avoid the public hullabaloo that happened (Tuesday night).”

Lacierda also said President Benigno Aquino III would leave for Bali Thursday to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit and would be back on Saturday.

Originally posted at 10:34 pm | Wednesday, November 16, 2011