Not taxpayers’ money for Arroyo’s treatment

President Aquino should thank Gloria Arroyo for rejecting his offer to bring in medical specialists to examine her or else that would have created another round of controversy on the source of funds for that undertaking.

In his press conference Wednesday, where Aquino affirmed the decision of the Department of Justice not to allow Arroyo to leave the country, he offered to bring in the medical specialists that his predecessor is supposed to be consulting abroad.

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“If necessary, we are prepared to answer the financial aspect of treating Ms Arroyo,” Aquino said.

Aquino used the word “we”. I suppose he meant the government because if he was referring to his own personal money, he should have used the pronoun “I.”

Now, if it’s government money, there has been no appropriation in the budget for Arroyo’s treatment. That would be illegal.

And I don’t think taxpayers would be happy to foot the bill for Arroyo’s doctors. I, myself, would object to it.

Of course, the President can tap other sources like his Social Fund, which comes from revenues of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation or the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes.

But then, that would be depriving the hundreds of indigents who beg from those funds. In the case of PCSO, some line up for days for a measly P5, 000 assistance.

That was a mindless offer made more for propaganda than anything else.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño said in a TV interview that Aquino just wanted to appear “magnanimous” after he disallowed Arroyo to travel, a decision which is being challenged by Arroyo before the Supreme Court.

The problem, Casino said, “ang masasalang dito ay taumbayan na naman dahil sino ba ang magbabayad ng halaga na yon e di tayo na naman. (it would be the people who would shoulder the burden.)”

Casiño also raised the irony of Aquino’s offer: “”Bakit yung isang magnanakaw sa kabang-yaman bibigyan mo pa ng dagdag na pera ng taxpayer? Parang hindi tama. (why would you give someone who plundered the people’s money more of the taxpayers’ money? It doesn’t sound right. )”

Arroyo was interviewed by Manila Standard even before Aquino announced the travel ban on her and she said she could very well afford to fly in foreign experts herself but would not risk it because even the most advanced hospitals in the country were not equipped to perform a tetracycline-labeled bone biopsy, which she needed.

“I can invite the doctors to come here except the protocol has never been done here and they have extensive research facilities abroad,” Manila Standard quoted Arroyo as having said.

“I am finished finding the cure here.I’ve tried everything. I have undergone three operations, had my neck opened three times, and these failed, and not one doctor has found the cure because they cannot say what is wrong with me, ” Arroyo said.

I have stated in my previous column that I am for allowing Arroyo to seek treatment wherever she wants it because it is her right. The Constitution guarantees every Filipino citizen’s right to travel.

Of course, Arroyo violated that constitutional guarantee with the issuance by her former justice secretary, Alberto Agra, of DOJ Circular 41 authorizing the justice secretary to place under the Watch list any one not yet charged in court but is a subject of a preliminary investigation. But that doesn’t justify this government, which ran on the pledge of reform, of continuing that inhuman act.

In justifying the travel ban on Arroyo, Aquino mentioned the non-bailable case of electoral sabotage in the 2007 elections that the DOJ is accusing Arroyo of.

Does Aquino know that , that case is yet to be filed? The DOJ panel of prosecutors is still in the stage of conducting preliminary investigation. Only after the DOJ finds probable cause to charge Gloria Arroyo of electoral sabotage in the 2007 elections will a case be filed before the Sandiganbayan.

The Aquino administration is one year and five months old. They are still in the stage of finding probable cause to make Gloria Arroyo accountable for the crimes she committed against the Filipino people.

That ‘s the concern raised by Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero who urged De Lima to charge Arroyo in court so that it’s the court that will issue a Hold Departure Order. “The process has to be right,” he said.

Preventing Arroyo to travel even without a pending case in court may seem okay to many because she is very much disliked. Many say it’s giving her a dose of her own medicine. But Escudero said, “What if they do it to you and me?”