Security risk

Whatever may have happened in yesterday’s planned departure by former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, we can be sure of one thing: She has caused more trouble and division for this country than any current political figure outside of Marcos.

As we went to press, a warrant of arrest was served on Arroyo at St. Luke’s Hospital in Taguig after charges of election sabotage were filed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) against the former president in relation to the 2004 and 2007 elections.

While the 2007 elections is yet another ignominious chapter in the country’s notorious election history—a shutout of opposition candidates that’s so incredulous that its chief instigators, the Ampatuans, eventually admitted to their culpability—it’s the 2004 elections that Arroyo will forever be entangled with.

Her TV apology for the “Hello, Garci” scandal sparked an uproar that no amount of calibrated police response (CPR), PR pronouncements or snubs to congressional investigations could quell.

Last Wednesday, her aborted trip sparked polarized views on human rights and justice delayed.

Whether or not she gets to seek medical treatment abroad is not the primordial question. It’s whether she can be made to stay home to face the music.

As thing stand, the Aquino government can justify their continued refusal to allow Arroyo to leave the country because she represents a viable flight risk.

Arroyo is reportedly seeking treatment at a Singaporean medical center whose clientele consists of Asian royalty.

With so much money at her disposal, political lieutenants at her beck and call, a stacked Supreme Court plus her connections established from her years as president, she can still be a fount of trouble abroad.

What’s to prevent Arroyo from remote-controlling political events in the country if she hightails it to a nation with no extradition treaty to the Philippines?

The election charges filed against Arroyo speak of someone who wasn’t above using whatever means necessary to achieve her ends.

Last Wednesday’s airport high drama is testament to Arroyo’s desperation to escape the long arm of the law. At this point, nearly anything is possible.