MANILA, Philippines - A member  of the House of Representatives yesterday said the Aquino government cannot just allow detained former President, now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, to leave the country for medical treatment abroad.

Ifugao Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat, chairman of the Committee on National Cultural Communities, said that before allowing the detained  former Chief Executive  to have her corrective surgery treated abroad, the Aquino government should ensure that  her medical needs could be attended to by the country's medical specialists.

Baguilat said he believes that Mrs. Arroyo’s alleged life-threatening condition could be addressed locally.

"It's not my interest to tell President Benigno S. Aquino III to have mercy on Mrs. Arroyo so she can have her ‘medical escape.’ I think it's up to Mrs. Arroyo and her allies to request Malacanang. But if I were to advise the President, I would tell him to make sure the ailment is something that can't be addressed by Philippine hospitals and  doctors here and secondly, it is must be really life-threatening," he said in an interview.

Occidental Mindoro Rep.  Ma. Amelita Villarosa,  Mrs. Arroyo's friend and partymate who has been regularly visiting Mrs. Arroyo at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC), disclosed that the detained former President cannot eat anymore and is on a soup diet due to complications arising from her previous neck surgery.

Baguilat said the President should hand down his decision on whether or not he would allow Mrs. Arroyo to seek medical attention abroad "based on what is just, fair and moral."

"Mrs. Arroyo is undergoing trial for alleged crimes against the people. Her case bears the highest form of crimes against the people - fraud, plunder, corruption. The President can't go easy on her. She should bear with the realities of prison," Baguilat claimed.

"As a former president, her medical needs could be prioritized but I feel it is something that could be addressed locally," he said.

Mrs. Arroyo has been under hospital arrest at the VMMC since December last year after Judge Jesus Mupas of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 112 slapped her with electoral sabotage charges.

Speaker Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte Jr. also shared the same sentiment with Baguilat, saying that there has to be a series of test before allowing Mrs. Arroyo to leave for treatment overseas.

“I think we need to hear from the specialists,” Belmonte said, recognizing that the courts would be the prime decision maker on Mrs. Arroyo’s departure.

He said that since the former President is staying at VMMC, the health test could be expedited.

House Assistant Majority Leader and Citizens Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) party-list Rep. Sherwin Tugna also agreed with his colleagues, saying that "a thorough examination of her health is needed to verify the necessity of going abroad for medical treatment.”

Serving as one of the House prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, he is also counting on the courts to decide on Mrs. Arroyo's condition "according to the law and according to what is best for the criminal justice system of the country."

Just like Baguilat, Tugna stressed that “the State has an interest and a duty to its people to make sure that persons charged with non-bailable offenses should be in the territory and jurisdiction of the State.”

Villarosa said Mrs. Arroyo has been experiencing “choking sensation and shortness of breath.”

It was reportedly the titanium implant that is making it difficult for the former President to eat normally as it is allegedly blocking her esophagus.