Filipinos angry as star lawyer Clooney defends former president Arroyo
Star lawyer, who is also wife of the Hollywood actor George, claims the detained former president's rights have been violated
Filipinos have reacted with disbelief to reports that star international lawyer Amal Clooney had filed a complaint to a UN human rights body on behalf of detained former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who has been repeatedly denied medical treatment abroad for a rare bone disease.
The 67-year-old former leader Arroyo has been under hospital arrest since 2011 on charges of vote-rigging and corruption and is being held in a government hospital where she is receiving treatment for her spinal problem.
Earlier this week Arroyo's lawyers announced that the wife of Hollywood movie star George Clooney had filed the case last month at the Geneva-based UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a unit of the UN Commission on Human rights.
Attorney Modesto Ticman said Clooney argued Arroyo's rights were being violated because she has been repeatedly denied bail and the chance to travel abroad to get treatment.
Arroyo's lawyer Larry Gadon claimed Clooney was also demanding an apology and compensation for "arbitrary detention" and "political persecution".
However, other legal experts in the Philippines criticised Clooney's move.
"By George! She is clueless!" said Edre Olalia, secretary general of the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers.
"Attorney Amal is unfortunately misinformed and her spouse's popularity and glamour are being used for unscrupulous selfish agenda."
Similar statements were made on social media.
"Amal Clooney, wherever you are, Gloria Arroyo is not Aung San Suu Kyi. She was a corrupt president and has done nothing for our country," Twitter user @being_mae wrote, referring to the Nobel Prize winning Myanmar opposition figure.
Arroyo could face up to life in prison for stealing 366 million pesos (HK$64 million) in state lottery funds meant for charity, and spending it on elections.
The Philippine anti-graft court has repeatedly refused Arroyo permission to seek medical treatment abroad.
Human rights lawyer Ruben Carranza, who is director of the Reparative Justice Programme of the International Centre for Transitional Justice in New York, said Arroyo's hospital detention could violate a human rights treaty, but not in the way her lawyers depicted it.
He explained that under the "equal protection clause" all detainees must be treated equally. However, held in a hospital suite, "Arroyo has received privileges in detention denied other similarly-situated detainees."
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the government had yet to receive a formal notice of the case before the UN.
"The government will respond accordingly," he said. Lauro Baja, who served as Philippine permanent representative to the UN, and president of the UN Security Council, said the case would fall flat.
"Even if there is a decision, [the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention] would still have to go through Philippine courts for enforcement. So it's not a cause for worry."
An international relations specialist who declined to be named said the worst the UN could do was to "name and shame" the Philippines.
Additional reporting By Agence France-Presse