Arroyo spends night at hospital near NAIA

Following Tuesday night's tumultuous scene where authorities at the airport blocked her from going abroad, former President and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo spent a relatively quiet Tuesday night at a hospital near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Arroyo stayed at the St. Luke's Medical Center, which radio dzBB's Rodil Vega reported is less than 30 minutes away from NAIA. At the SLMC, media crews waited for word on Arroyo's condition. The dzBB report said some of Arroyo's allies were still angry over immigration authorities at the NAIA blocking Arroyo's flight abroad. Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo reiterated the Arroyo camp's challenge to the Department of Justice to file formal charges against Arroyo. Pelayo said blocking a person from leaving for abroad had in effect stripped her of her constitutional right to travel. Arroyo's camp is planning to file contempt charges against the government for defying a Supreme Court temporary restraining order against the DOJ watch-list order. The TRO would have allowed Arroyo to go abroad. In Malacañang, however, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda raised questions about Arroyo's bid to fly out of the country. On his Twitter account, he claimed Arroyo arrived barely 30 minutes before her scheduled flight, when the standard procedure is at least two hours before. "The flight was 8:50 p.m., they arrived at the airport at 8:20 or so. They knew very well you're supposed to check in one or two hours before!" Lacierda said. — ELR, GMA News