On the horns of a dilemma

President Aquino seems to be on the horns of a dilemma created by the decision of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima denying the request of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to go abroad for medical treatment.

De Lima did not hedge when confronted by a contentious issue shoveled to her for resolution by the President, who badly needs a lightning rod  to deflect any fall-out if the resolution would prove to be unpopular. The flak is not falling on De Lima; in fact, she is reaping some applause for shielding the President from any possible backlash. Part of a Cabinet member’s role is to take the rap for the head of government who is under fire over controversial issues.

Her decision as the chief legal officer of the administration actually put the President on the spot. It did not dissipate the issue of whether or not to allow Arroyo to seek medical treatment abroad. The petition to seek medical care abroad became an issue with serious political ramifications rather than a legal one.

In the aftermath of the De Lima opinion, her boss is now squirming as he does a high-wire act trying to balance the risks of allowing Arroyo to go abroad and appearing inhumane and unjust. The first risk flows from fears that if she jumps her official leave and fails to return, the President would be left holding an empty bag and would not be able to terminate cases she faces (most of all, the complaints for electoral sabotage, deemed as a non-bailable offense). The government believes that her absence would disable it from putting a closure to the case by Christmas as Mr. Aquino had earlier pledged.

On the other hand, the President is putting up a show that he is a compassionate and just man out to bring to justice or send to jail past officials charged with a number of grave offenses, including alleged electoral sabotage and graft and corruption.

Explaining his agreement with De Lima’s decision, the President told a press conference, “We need her here for arraignment, if  this will be needed. . . If she won’t return, how can she be made answerable?”

This is an understandable concern, and the President addressed this with a televised speech underscoring the administration’s determination to bring to a resolution the cases filed against Arroyo. He put this case this way: “If we allow a  person accused of a non-bailable offense to travel to a country without an extradition treaty with the Philippines so she could be treated for an ailment that could be equally addressed by local hospitals, will justice prevail here? Which carries more weight, the interest of many or the interest of a single person?”

Mr. Aquino  said De Lima’s denial of the request was “justifiable” because it was necessary. “We don’t want the derailment of a case that has a big implication (for) our democracy,” he said. “Our only desire is to get justice.”

He told reporters that if Arroyo failed to attend her arraignment, her case would not move because “there is no trial in absentia… If an  accused is not in the Philippines, the case will not push through and there will be no closure on the issue of electoral sabotage that happened in 2007.”

According to presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, the President went out of his way to offer a “happy compromise.” He described the decision as a “balancing of the interest of one who wishes to travel versus the interest of the state for accountability and justice . . . and we recognize that in order to balance it, we would provide (the doctors), so that there would be no claim that we are persecuting (her).”

“We will provide at our own expense any physician that she would so appoint,” Lacierda said.

What he did not say was that blood would be on the government’s hands if Arroyo died while being treated by local doctors and even by imported doctors nominated by her. This was exactly the fear when the dictator Ferdinand Marcos dispatched President Aquino’s father, Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., for medical treatment to the United States after he was severely weakened by the rigors of imprisonment during martial law.

The predicament of the administration boils down to the fact that it cannot trust Arroyo to return if she is allowed to travel abroad.

Reading from a prepared statement, the President raised doubts on the real intentions of  Arroyo to go abroad. He said that while it was clear that she was ailing, specialists had also made clear that she did not need immediate treatment abroad.

The President cited the statement of the Philippine Medical Association that hospitals in the country were capable of performing a bone biopsy. He added that “it is also clear that Ms Arroyo is facing several cases, including electoral sabotage, a non-bailable offense.”

Arroyo has lined up medical reports of her doctors attesting to the urgency of getting medical treatment. She underwent three surgeries between July and August to realign her spine. Later, she was diagnosed to be suffering from hypoparathyroidism, a condition that the Arroyos claim requires treatment abroad.

After the submission of evidence and testimonies of specialists on Arroyo’s condition, the President was not impressed, and remained deeply suspicious of her intentions.