JUSTICE Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday said there is no legal basis to grant the plea of former president now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for a house arrest.

In a chance interview, De Lima, who was echoing the earlier statement of former solicitor General Francisco Chavez, stressed that nothing in the Revised Rules of Court that will allow the ailing leader to be detained in her residence while the electoral-sabotage case is being tried.

When reminded that ousted president Joseph Estrada was allowed house arrest before, De Lima conceded that it was indeed a precedent but the determination for the privilege of house arrest is on “case to case basis.”

“Wala naman talaga. You don’t find it in the Rules of Court or in any law but I think may precedents but on a case to case basis. Depende yan kung may enough reasons,” she said.

The former chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights failed to elaborate.

De Lima said further that the resolution on Mrs. Arroyo’s house arrest plea depends on the sound discretion of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court, which is handling the electoral-sabotage case.

State prosecutors have said that Arroyo, who has been placed under hospital arrest, should be held in the Southern Police District’s public information office, which is being transformed into a detention quarters.

Earlier, Chavez said that there is nothing in the Rules of Court or in the Revised Penal Code dealing specifically with house arrest but only house service of sentence.

He said house arrest is a remnant of the martial law era when then President Ferdinand Marcos would put his enemies under hospital arrest and then house arrest so he would look good to the public.

In the case of Arroyo, Chavez said allowing the former president to be under house arrest would show that the legal system gives preferential treatment to former government officials.