SEN. ESCUDERO ON DOJ'S REFUSAL TO ALLOW GMA TO SEEK MED TREATMENT ABROAD
MANILA, NOVEMBER 10, 2011 (PRESS STATEMENT) OFFICE OF SENATOR CHIZ ESCUDERO Refer to: Judee Aguilar /5526601 loc. 6540 Website: http://www.chizescudero.com
The end does not justify the means.
While I may tend to agree that there is a need to prevent the possible flight of former President Gloria Arroyo given the cases filed against her, and the highly questionable premise of her reasons for travel, the remedy is to petition the Courts to issue a hold departure order (HDO) and not to rely on an illegal and unconstitutional circular issued during PGMA's time.
It just seems right and I for one would want to ensure that she is made to account for her sins against the people.
Only a hold departure order can prevent someone from leaving the country.
To remedy the legal and constitutional entanglements of the DOJ circular against former PGMA, the justice department should by now file the appropriate cases against her and eventually ask for an HDO from the Courts.
Had these cases been filed, we won't be debating about this particular issue now.
FROM MANILA STANDARD OPINION
Politically myopic
The decision of the Aquino administration to do everything to prevent former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to seek medical treatment abroad is politically myopic.
The political advisers of President Benigno Aquino III are probably blinded by their desire to humiliate the former President and to continue using her as scapegoat for this administration's blunders that they do not see that the better political move is to get Mrs. Arroyo out of the country and to keep her out.
If and when Mrs. Arroyo goes abroad in a virtual political exile, she and her remaining political allies will be politically neutralized and their ability to destabilize the Aquino administration will be minimized.
Budget Secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad, who is one of Mr. Aquino's most trusted political advisers, says that one of the reasons the Aquino administration is blocking Mrs. Arroyo's plan to get medical treatment abroad is the possible political fallout against President Aquino in case Mrs. Arroyo decides to stay abroad and refuses to face the cases that will be filed against her.
The cases range from political fraud to plunder.
It's hard to understand what political fallout Abad is talking about. The fallout, if any, will be on Mrs. Arroyo in case she decides to go on exile and refuse to go home. The Aquino administration can file all the cases they want against her and the people will judge her guilty if she does not come home.
In fact, Mrs. Arroyo would serve as a better scapegoat if she is abroad and she is unable to defend herself.
The former President knows very well the political advantages of keeping the leader of the political opposition out of the country.
After ousting President Joseph "Erap" Estrada through the so-called Edsa People Power II, the Arroyo administration tried hard to convince Estrada to go into exile.
This was clearly an astute political move. Mrs. Arroyo's political strategists knew that the popular Estrada poses a continuing headache for the Arroyo administration if he stays in the country.
Mr. Estrada says Arroyo Justice Secretary Nani Perez talked to him a couple of times to convince him to leave the country and promising him that if he does, the Arroyo administration would leave him alone and that no cases would be filed against him.
Estrada refused the offer. He told Perez that he would not leave the Philippines and he was willing to face political persecution if that is what the Arroyo Administration wants.
As Mrs. Arroyo's political advisers feared, Estrada was indeed a political thorn for her administration. He became the rallying point of various protest actions against President Arroyo, including an Edsa People Power III that ended with a bloody march to Malacañang.
Even the political advisers of President Cory Aquino realized the political benefits of keeping potential political destabilizers out of the country. They refused to allow former President Ferdinand Marcos to come home from exile in Hawaii while he was still alive.
Even when dead, the Cory administration insisted that the return of the body would be made directly to his home province of Ilocos Norte.
If President Aquino's advisers are anxious of possible political fallouts, it would come not from allowing Mrs. Arroyo to go abroad but from their attempt to put all sorts of obstacles to her plans to get medical treatment abroad.
As expected, Mrs. Arroyo's spokesperson Len Bautista-Horn has compared former dictator and strongman President Ferdinand Marcos to President Aquino. She said Mr. Aquino is worse than Mr. Marcos.
In an interview we had with Bautista-Horn in our daily political commentary program Karambola sa dwIZ she pointed out that Mr. Marcos allowed the father of Pres. Aquino, former Senator Ninoy Aquino, to go abroad and seek medical treatment in Boston for his heart condition.
Bautista-Horn said that at that time, Aquino had been tried and sentenced to die by musketry by a military tribunal. Yet, Marcos allowed him to go abroad.
Indeed, Marcos could have said that Ninoy Aquino should just seek treatment at the Heart Center which was one of the best facilities and doctors in Asia at that time. But the Aquino family wanted Ninoy Aquino to seek treatment abroad so Ninoy was allowed to go to Boston.
Marcos who was even vilified by President Aquino as an unrepentant human rights violator, when he explained why he would not allow his burial in the Libingan ng mga Bayani or his burial with state honors even if this is done in Ilocos, did not even question who would go to Boston with Ninoy Aquino.
It would be hard not to compare Marcos' treatment of the request of Ninoy Aquino to get treatment in Boston for his heart condition and President Aquino's actions on the request of Mrs. Arroyo's to get alternative stem cell therapy treatment for her hyperparathyroidism.
Marcos did say that Ninoy should look at available treatment in the Philippines. He did not question who would accompany Ninoy abroad. He did not ask for Ninoy's itinerary. He did not doubt Ninoy's intention to comeback.
Bautista-Horn said ex-President Arroyo posed no objections when President Joseph Estrada wanted to undergo knee replacement procedure in Hong Kong at a time when Estrada was already in detention and going through a plunder trial.
The spokesperson of Mrs. Arroyo was correct to point out that there is not a single charge against Arroyo filed in court although there are several complaints for plunder and election fraud pending before the Department of Justice.
It is surprising that the lawyers of Mrs. Arroyo have not yet gone to the Supreme Court to allow her to exercise her right to travel.
Several constitutionalists, including former Ateneo Law School Dean Fr. Joaquin Bernas SJ, have said that there are no legal grounds for the Aquino administration to prevent Mrs. Arroyo from seeking medical treatment abroad.
Mrs. Arroyo's ally, House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman, said that Department of Justice's watch list order cannot deprive Mrs. Arroyo of her right to travel which is enshrined in the Constitution's Bill or Rights.
"It is not a question of compassion, accommodation or even health condition but a matter of constitutional right which former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo must exercise without any impediment," Lagman said.
However, it is clear that unless there is an order from the Supreme Court, the Aquino administration will turn a deaf ear to all these constitutional arguments. Political stubbornness, among others, is the hallmark of this administration.
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