P50,000-A-DAY HOSPITAL SUITE
[PHOTO - The patient's room at the
presidential suite of St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig City, where Arroyo is
currently staying. Photo from St. Luke's website]
MANILA,
NOVEMBER 25 2011 (ABS-CBN) Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is
currently under hospital arrest at St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig City.
Since last week, Arroyo, 64, has been staying in the hospital's lone
presidential suite which The Philippine Star reported costs P50,000 a day, or
P47,619 for senior citizens.
The amount is more than half the monthly salary of President Benigno Aquino
III, which is pegged at over P90,000, excluding taxes.
Aquino received his first paycheck of P63,002.17 in July last year.
St. Luke's has described its presidential suite as the "tops" among all the
rooms, with "more than complete amenities you would actually aspire to stay."
It is divided into four rooms: receiving area, patient's room, kitchen,
bathroom, and guest room.
The patient's room comes with a day bed, a swivel chair, a La-Z boy chair, a
TV console, a personal computer with printer and scanner, a 40-inch plasma TV
with a wall-mounted sound system, a DVD player, four tables and a safety deposit
box.
The suite's dining area which has an eight-seater dining table, while the
bathroom comes with a jacuzzi.
The guest room, meanwhile, also has its own 40-inch plasma TV, two single
beds, a toilet and a bathroom.
[PHOTO - The dining room at the presidential suite can seat eight
guests. Photo from St. Luke's website]
An ordinary hospital room usually contains a bed, a table and a chair.
Several Filipinos turned to Twitter to complain about Arroyo's luxurious
hospital room.
"Learned that GMA is staying in a 50k presidential suite which includes a
jacuzzi and a dinner table. This is where all our money went," user Leanne Tan
wrote.
"Gloria Arroyo's room in St. Luke's Taguig, the lone presidential suite,
costs P50,000 a day -- the most private and secluded in the hospital," user
Erwin Louie Castillo wrote.
"She worked hard for this. Manipulating polls and all," user Bonxz wrote.
Arroyo is said to be in delicate condition due to hypoparathyroid and bone
diseases, and is awaiting trial for electoral sabotage.
Atty. Raul Lambino, Arroyo's legal spokesperson, said the Pampanga
congresswoman is also suffering from diarrhea, poor appetite and stress.
A Pasay Regional Trial Court judge issued an arrest warrant against Arroyo
after she was charged with electoral sabotage by the Commission on Elections
last week.
This prevented the former President from seeking medical treatment abroad.
Early this week, the Southern Police District's (SPD) library and media
lounge were cleaned and repainted to serve as a temporary detention cell for
Arroyo.
The room, with its own toilet, new bed and air conditioner, is a lot better
when compared to an ordinary jail cell.
The SPD has said that Arroyo, being a former President, deserves to be given
utmost respect.
FROM THE INQUIRER
Gloria Arroyo mug shots taken while hooked to IV
drip By Cynthia D. Balana, Tarra Quismundo Philippine Daily
Inquirer
As head of state she was honored in state banquets and greeted with
military salutes, but on Saturday she was booked on charges of electoral
sabotage, becoming the second ex-Philippine President to be detained on criminal
allegations.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now a representative of Pampanga, was not only
wearing a neck brace over her hospital gown but was also hypertensive,
"frail-looking" and hooked to an IV drip when she went through the standard
booking procedure, police said.
"We proceeded to [her] room. We took her photographs, portrait and profile
(left and right side) for our mug book reference," Senior Supt. Joel Coronel,
chief of the Metro Manila regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Group
(CIDG), told reporters in a briefing Saturday afternoon.
Police took Arroyo's finger and palm prints, and was checked by police
medical officers to determine whether she indeed had to remain at St. Luke's
Medical Center in Taguig City, where the warrant for her arrest was served on
Friday evening.
Said Coronel: "[She] will remain under guard and detention here … until such
time the warrant will be returned to court and a compliance report submitted to
court. And it will be up to the court, again exercising its sound discretion,
whether to order the continued confinement of President Arroyo here or transfer
her to another detention facility."
Erap on Gloria Arroyo arrest: It's karma November
19, 2011 6:23pm 0 Email0 0 ShareThisNew
Former President Gloria Arroyo's predecessor, Joseph Estrada, told
local media on Saturday that Arroyo's arrest was "karma" and he hoped her health
would recover so she could face the charges.
"She should be made accountable not only for electoral sabotage but also
corruption," he said from Singapore.
In an interview on Saturday noontime on GMA News' Balitanghali, Estrada also
said he hopes Arroyo can recover soonest so she can face the charges against
her.
"Hindi natutulog ang Panginoong Diyos. Alam niya ang dapat gawin sa
nangyayari sa ating bansa," he said.
'Don't compare us'
Estrada said the Filipino people are aware of the "offenses" Arroyo had
committed, ranging from stealing the presidency to cheating in the 2004 and 2008
elections.
He said Arroyo will also have to answer to charges of corruption,
such as the P728-million fertilizer fund mess and the $329.48-million ZTE
broadband deal scam.
"Diyos ko, alam ng sambayanang Pilipino kung anong ginawa niya. Nang-agaw ng
pwesto, nandaya sa 2004 election pati ang mahal na kaibiigan ko hindi nakaupo
... Sa 2007 nandaya para manalo ang partido niya," he said.
"Sa madaling salita hindi lang electoral sabotage o pandaraya sa election
kundi sa corruption (She should be made accountable not only for electoral
sabotage but also corruption)," he added.
Estrada also insisted there was no basis to compare him and Arroyo, even
though both were arrested shortly after stepping down from power.
He also said the Arroyo administration repeatedly offered to have him go
abroad in exchange for dropping charges against him, but he refused.
Estrada said people should pray that Arroyo's health is restored so she can
face the charges against her.
"Ang akin lang pagdasal natin siya na talagang kanyang kalusugan para lahat
na kaso at paratang na laban sa kanya maharap niya. Lahat ng public officials
are accountable to the Filipino people. Kailangan ipaliwanag niya kung anong
masasabi niya sa paratang laban sa kanya," he said.
Hospital arrest
Estrada favored hospital arrest for Arroyo. "Puwede siguro pabayaan
sa hospital arrest," he said.
Saying the case is now in court, Malacañang said it will let the Pasay City
court decide on where arrested former President Gloria Arroyo will be detained.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte declined to comment on whether
the Palace would prefer that Arroyo stay at a government-run hospital.
"That will be a matter that will be resolved if and when lawyers of the
former president move to with the presiding judge, with the court. Everything
that happens from hereon is officially under jurisdiction and discretion of
Judge (Jesus) Mupas," she said on government-run dzRB radio.
Valte was responding to a question on whether the Palace would prefer that
Arroyo be detained at a government hospital.
Arroyo was arrested Friday evening over charges of electoral sabotage. She
has been staying at the St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig City since Tuesday
night.
"Klaro ang nangyari kahapon the former president was in the hospital for her
medical condition, 'yan ang very clear, she was in the hospital because of her
condition," Valte said.
Arroyo has not been seen in public since Tuesday night, when, following the
initial Supreme Court decision to lift her travel ban, she had turned up at the
airport in a wheelchair and her neck in a brace.
The government stopped her and her husband from boarding a flight and she has
since been in the hospital, where she was formally arrested on Friday.
On Monday, the Pasay City court that issued her arrest warrant will hear a
separate petition to issue a hold departure order, which could permanently
prevent Arroyo from leaving the country. — with Reuters/ELR,
GMA News
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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