JAIL READIED FOR GMA / LIBERAL PARTY MATES RALLY SUPPORT FOR P-NOY
MANILA, NOVEMBER 21, 2011 (BULLETIN) By FRANCIS T. WAKEFIELD — A temporary detention facility, measuring four by 10 meters, is now ready for former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is under arrest on election sabotage charges, just in case St. Luke's Medical Center doctors give the go signal for her transfer to the police headquarters, the Southern Police District (SPD) said Sunday.
Senior Superintendent James Bucayu, SPD officer-in-charge, said the district has converted its media lounge/public information office as temporary detention facility for the former Chief Executive, who was placed under hospital arrest last Friday after she was served an arrest warrant.
Judge Jesus Mupas of the Pasay Regional Trial Court, Branch 112, issued the warrant of arrest after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) filed electoral sabotage charges against Mrs. Arroyo, former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., and Lintang Bedol, provincial election supervisor of Maguindanao.
Bucayu said the room has its own kitchen sink, bed, table, and air-conditioning unit. A rest room, located outside the facility, will also be provided for Mrs. Arroyo's personal use.
"The room will be very simple, hindi (not) luxurious. It (room) will serve as a temporary detention facility for the former President," Bucayu added.
Bucayu said once Mrs. Arroyo is transferred to the facility, she will be like an ordinary person with no VIP (very important person) treatment. He added that security will be tight outside the premises.
To ensure that Mrs. Arroyo's health will not be put at risk, the SPD will allow doctors and nurses to visit her and check on her condition. Immediate family members may also visit her.
Bucayu said the lawyers of Mrs. Arroyo may also formally file a petition for hospital arrest to avoid being taken to the SPD headquarters.
But for the meantime, Bucayu said, Mrs. Arroyo has to stay at St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig City due to her poor medical condition.
"We sent an expert from our health service last Saturday and he told us that she (Mrs. Arroyo) can't yet be transferred (to the detention facility) due to her poor physical condition. Hindi pa niya kaya," he said.
"But once she improves, she will be transferred to the SPD facility."
During a press briefing last Saturday, Dr. Juliet Cervantes, Arroyo's personal physician, told reporters that Mrs. Arroyo will have to stay in the hospital for a few more weeks as she is suffering from hypoparathyroid disease.
She disclosed that doctors at the hospital are still monitoring the condition of Mrs. Arroyo due to her delicate condition.
Cervantes said Mrs. Arroyo has not been eating properly and has been very weak due to stress.
Bucayu said at least 14 policemen from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and Taguig City Police are still assigned to St. Luke's as part of the tight security.
He said two of the 14 policemen are assigned outside Arroyo's hospital room. He said visitors are required to sign the logbook first.
The hospital also assigned dozens of private security guards inside and outside the facility as part of the tight security measure.
Because of her medical condition, Bishop Rodolfo Diamante, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)-Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care (ECPPC), is not opposed to the idea of placing the former President under hospital or even house arrest.
"I think for humanitarian reasons, that should be provided and also because of our jail system. You cannot put her in our jail given the kind of jail that we have," Diamante said.
As this developed, Presidential Undersecretary for Political Affairs Chito Gascon told reporters that President Benigno S. Aquino III is not keen on granting a presidential pardon on Mrs. Arroyo should she be convicted on election sabotage charges.
President Aquino will not do what his predecessor did in the case of former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada who, after being convicted for plunder and meted with a penalty of life sentence, was pardoned by Mrs. Arroyo, Gascon said.
Meanwhile, the government is still open to hear the testimony of former poll official Virgilio Garcillano on alleged electoral fraud during the past administration if he decides to come out, a Palace official said.
As the government prepares for a legal battle against former President Arroyo on poll sabotage charges, Deputy presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte said it is up to Garcillano and other possible witnesses if they want to testify and shed light on alleged electoral fraud. (With reports from Leonard D. Postrado, Leslie Ann G. Aquino, and Genalyn D. Kabiling)
FROM THE PHILSTAR
Party mates to rally support for P-Noy By Jess Diaz (The Philippine Star) Updated November 21, 2011 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Party mates of President Aquino in the ruling Liberal Party (LP) will rally support today in the House of Representatives for his administration's decision to prevent former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from leaving the country.
LP stalwarts led by Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada and Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II will circulate a resolution for signature not only by party members but also by congressmen belonging to the pro-administration majority coalition.
As of last Friday, Tañada said they already had more than 50 signatures on the resolution.
There are 85 LP members in the House, including Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., who has said he would leave the signature gathering to his party mates.
Other party members of the majority coalition include the National Unity Party, composed of congressmen formerly belonging to Lakas; the Nationalist People's Coalition, the Nacionalista Party, and various party-list groups.
The expression of support for Aquino comes amid speculations that congressmen who are loyal to the beleaguered former president and now representative of Pampanga's second district would file an impeachment complaint against him even only for the purpose of harassing him or for making a political statement.
But the head of the opposition in the House, Minority Leader Edcel Lagman, promptly quashed such speculations, though he admitted that there was strong clamor among Arroyo's supporters for her allies to initiate an impeachment proceeding against Aquino.
"We are a responsible opposition," Lagman said. "Filing an impeachment case requires serious study."
He said they would have to reckon with the "numerical superiority" of administration supporters in the House before deciding to start an impeachment process.
In any event, Belmonte and Gonzales have said any move to impeach Aquino would not prosper.
In their resolution, Aquino's allies also expressed support for the actions of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima in preventing Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel from leaving the country.
They said the Aquino government showed "extraordinary political will" in keeping the Arroyos here.
"The decision to bar the Arroyo couple is in line with the President's covenant with the Filipino people to be the nation's first and most determined fighter of corruption," they said.
"President Aquino has a social contract with the people to transform the false sense of justice from one which money and connections can buy to a truly impartial system of institutions that deliver equal justice to rich or poor," they added.
Aside from Tañada and Gonzales, and Reps. Joseph Emilio Abaya of Cavite, Irvin Alcala of Quezon, Henedina Abad of Batanes, Mel Sarmiento of Samar, and Walden Bello and Kaka Bag-ao of the party-list group Akbayan were the initial authors and co-authors of the resolution.
The President's supporters questioned the temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court, which effectively allowed Arroyo to travel abroad.
"It will hinder the turning of the wheels of justice and trivialize the efforts of the current government in the fight against corruption, as well as render the case (on the right to travel of Arroyo) pending before the SC moot and useless," they said.
"The nature of TROs is to require the temporary enjoining of an act and the preservation of the status quo prior to the resolution of a case, not to render it moot," they said.
They called on their colleagues to collectively express their support for the administration, pointing out that its actions "are intended to serve the ends of justice."
"Flight is an indication of guilt and the act of fleeing under the cover of ostensible judicial order is an abuse of the legal process and a malevolent twisting of the law and the legal process," they said.
"The Filipino people have the right to know the truth regarding the grave allegations that former President Macapagal-Arroyo faces. They have the right to hold public officials who have wronged the country accountable," they added.
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