Philippine's Arroyo puts back travel bid by a day

A physically weakened Gloria Arroyo has delayed a trip abroad for treatment, according to the ex-Philippine leader's aides, prolonging a stand-off that has also set the government against the judiciary. Instead of flying to Singapore on Thursday as earlier planned, the hospitalised former leader now hopes her condition will improve so she can leave Friday, her spokeswoman Elena Bautista Horn said. "If she's well by today we will fly out tomorrow," Horn said. The 64-year-old had engaged the government in a test of wills since Tuesday, when she attempted to defy a travel ban imposed by President Benigno Aquino, who wants to put her on trial for graft and election fraud. Arroyo was stopped from flying to Singapore after she was dramatically escorted Tuesday into Manila airport in a wheelchair and wearing a neck brace to support her spine that she says is weakened due to a rare bone disease. The Philippine government insisted Wednesday she must stay in the country to face a graft probe, defying the Supreme Court, which ruled she was free to seek medical care abroad. After visiting Arroyo at a Manila hospital, her lawyer Raul Lambino announced that she had elected to rest and called off a planned trip. "The first thing she told me was, 'Raul, I have not been getting enough sleep and I feel stressed. I am weak and my blood pressure is slightly elevated'," Lambino told reporters outside the hospital. Arroyo's first attempt to leave Tuesday had come hours after the Supreme Court overturned a travel ban that the Aquino administration put in place last week as it prepared to charge her with vote rigging and corruption. Arroyo ruled the country for more than nine years, and was elected to the lower house of the Philippine parliament after her term ended last year. Lambino denounced the Aquino government's decision to continue to enforce the travel ban despite the Supreme Court ruling. "This is worse than martial law. At least in martial law we know that there is a dictator," he said. "But this government is acting far, far worse than a dictator because they are acting in the cover of a constitution that they are not following." The Supreme Court, the country's highest tribunal, is to hold a special hearing Friday to address the Aquino government's move to defy its ruling on the Arroyo case, court spokesman Midas Marquez said. The justices would also discuss the government's separate plea to recall the court ruling, Marquez said on ABS-CBN television. The political stand-off forced Aquino to delay his trip to an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Bali, Indonesia, his spokesman Ricky Carandang told reporters there on Wednesday. Aquino left Manila for the summit early Thursday, a day later than planned, but Carandang had to stand in for his boss at the traditional group photograph of ASEAN leaders at the start of the summit, an AFP photographer said.