Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will leave Thursday for Singapore to see an endocrinologist, her spokesperson said Wednesday.
Arroyo, now a representative of Pampanga, postponed her trip planned for Wednesday because her "elevated" blood pressure, purportedly brought about by the refusal of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to allow her and her party to leave for abroad on Tuesday night, "has not normalized yet up to this time," Elena Bautista-Horn said.
According to Horn, Arroyo and her party will fly out Thursday for a scheduled checkup at 12:15 p.m. with an endocrinologist in Singapore.
She said Arroyo would be accompanied by her husband, Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo, a nurse, a close-in aide, and two members of the couple's respective staffs.
The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) said the Arroyos had earlier booked passage on Singapore Airlines Flight SQ 919, which departed at 5:10 p.m. Wednesday.
But the airline said the reservations were voided when the couple failed to show up an hour before the scheduled flight, according to MIAA public affairs office chief Connie Bungag.
If the Arroyos intend to be in Singapore by noon Thursday, they should be in any of these flights: Philippine Airlines' PR 511, which is to leave at around 6 a.m.; Tiger Airways' TR 2729, 6:20 a.m.; Cebu Pacific's 5J-801, 6:25 a.m.; and Singapore Airlines' SQ 915, 8:10 a.m.
Glandular ailment
Horn said the meeting with the doctor was for an evaluation of Arroyo's disease of the glands. She said the latter did not like taking too many medicines. Earlier reports said Arroyo's medication came up to at least 25 capsules a day.
"I'm sure Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has run out of excuses. That's Constitution 101. [On Tuesday], she said the DOJ had yet to receive the Supreme Court decision. But we've just learned that the department received it [Tuesday] night. So there is no more reason for her not to allow Mrs. Arroyo to leave," Horn told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
De Lima said on Tuesday afternoon that the Arroyos would remain on the watch list of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) because she had yet to receive a copy of the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court on the travel ban on the couple.
Horn said Arroyo was still at St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig City Wednesday morning because the latter felt bad after being stopped from leaving by immigration authorities at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 (Naia 1).
Commenting on the government's offer to shoulder the cost of bringing in a foreign doctor of Arroyo's choice, Horn said the money would be better used to pay government lawyers to defend the case against her boss.
