A priest and lawyer claimed recently that the arrest of ex-president Gloria Arroyo had triggered a “constitutional crisis”.

Father Ranhilio Aquino, dean of the San Beda College Graduate School of Law, said the crisis began when the government defied an order allowing Arroyo to leave the country to seek medical treatment on November 18.

“The constitutional crisis simply occurs when branches of the government do not operate according to the intent of the Philippine constitution,” he said.

“In other words, in the constitutional allocation of powers, it is the court that determines where the rights lie. If the executive branch does not recognize the pronouncements of the court, that’s why there is a crisis,” he said.