Manila: Former president Gloria Arroyo, now a representative of her hometown in Pampanga, central Philippines, and her husband, Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo, have approached the Supreme Court to allow them to travel abroad by declaring their inclusion in the Bureau of Immigration's watch list as unconstitutional.

In separate pleadings, the couple asked the court to nullify the circular issued by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima that placed them on the watch list of the Bureau of Immigration.

Request for injunction

They also asked the court to issue a temporary injunction against the implementation of the justice department's orders.

Gloria Arroyo has requested permission to travel abroad for parathyroid gland treatment after three ineffective operations for a pinched nerve in the neck, at St. Luke's Medical Centre in suburban Taguig, earlier this year.

De Lima has formally prohibited Arroyo from leaving the country as she wants to travel to several countries, some of which have no extradition treaties with the Philippines.

Electoral cases

Arroyo has been recuperating well, based on the statements of her doctors at St Luke's, and the assessment of Health Secretary (who is also a doctor) Enrique Ona, De Lima said.

She also referred to the statement of the Philippine Medical Association that Arroyo could seek treatment from bone specialists in the Philippines itself.

Arroyo and her husband were placed on the watch list on October 28 after the Department of Justice, the Commission on Elections, and Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel named them respondents in two electoral sabotage cases.

NPC support

However, the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), founded by billionaire businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr, the uncle of President Benigno ‘Noynoy' Aquino, supported Arroyo's request to seek medical treatment abroad.

The NPC supported President Aquino in the May 2010 presidential election. But the NPC's 35 elected congressmen are also Arroyo loyalists.

President Aquino has been reluctant to let Arroyo leave the country because it might affect his anti-corruption programme.