Manila: The presidential palace said it is leaving to the better decision of the court on whether former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will be allowed to leave the country for medical treatment abroad.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, on Friday, said the matter on allowing Arroyo to seek medical treatment out of the country is an issue that hinges on the decision of Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 112 Judge Jesus Mupas.

Mupas is presiding over proceedings on the electoral sabotage charge filed against Arroyo last December by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

On Thursday, a Philippine Daily Inquirer report citing a source close to Arroyo, said a medical procedure performed on Arroyo's neck and spine last year is encountering problems, leaving the former leader unable to eat properly without experiencing pain.

Because of this, the source hinted that Arroyo's doctors may ask that the former president leave the country to find treatment abroad.

But Lacierda said that at this point, it is difficult for the palace to second guess what steps Arroyo's doctors would be recommending. In the meantime, he said, Malacanang can only watch as doctors and lawyers and the court take actions that would decide the fate of Arroyo.

Lacierda said Arroyo's spine and neck condition "has not been confirmed officially, or at least by the medical doctors," as doctors who had examined her at the Makati Medical Centre last Thursday have yet to issue official findings.

Dr. Nona Legaspi, the director of the Veterans Memoral Medical Centre (VMMC) where Arroyo has been detained since December, refused to issue an official statement whether Arroyo's condition is indeed "life-threatening" as the source had professed it to be. In so far as Malacanang or government doctors are concerned, they have yet to receive any information on the reported ‘life-threatening' condition of the former President," according to Lacierda.

The palace official said added though that: "As far as we know, her condition has been getting better or has improved since November."

Another mandate

Earlier, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said that the now incumbent congressional representative of Pampanga's second district would be seeking another mandate in the coming mid-term elections this May 2013.

Arroyo however, will have to campaign while in detention, Comelec chair Sixto Brilliantes had said.

But Arroyo's political ally House Minority leader Danilo Suarez said Arroyo may not anymore decide to seek another mandate due to her condition.

Arroyo last December has been charged with electoral sabotage, an unbailable offence which led the Comelec to order her detained at the VMMC, a government hospital.

The former leader had been charged in connection with the 2007 mid-term elections where she allegedly favoured certain candidates.