UNDER TIGHT SECURITY NOW VMMC
[PHOTO - 'LITTLE
GIRL'. Anti-Arroyo protesters display a tarpaulin with a photo montage of former
President Arroyo behind bars as they march toward Veterans Memorial and Medical
Center in Quezon City on Friday. AP]
MANILA, DECEMBER 12, 2011 (STAR) By Cecille Suerte Felipe
- Even after the successful transfer of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) by land last Friday, her
spokesperson continues to trade accusations with the interior chief.
Arroyo's spokesperson, Ma. Elena Bautista-Horn was offended when Interior
Secretary Jesse Robredo accused her of lying when she said that the police did
not inform them of plans to transfer Arroyo to the VMMC via air ambulance.
Horn said that none of Arroyo's aides was aware of a plan for an air
conveyance. Arroyo has apprehensions about air travel because of incidents where
the plane she was riding in almost crashed.
"All this time the plan was by land," Horn said.
[PHOTO - Bracing for detention Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
is wheeled into the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City Friday
afternoon.]
Robredo, however, maintained that Horn lied.
"When Horn said she did not lie, she lied again," Robredo said in a text
message to The STAR.
He said police officials had been in constant coordination with Arroyo's
aides during the preparation for transfer.
Robredo said that it was not also true that there was no senior police
official at St. Luke's Medical Center prior to the transfer.
He said Dr. Hermie Salangad, the second senior official of the PNP-Health
Services Directorate, was with the former president at SLMC from Friday morning
until Mrs. Arroyo was transferred to VMMC.
"In fact, she (Salangad) joined convoy to VMMC and constantly apprised us of
situation from SLMC," Robredo pointed out.
In his report to Robredo, Chief Superintendent Miguel Laurel of the National
Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) said Arroyo's camp insisted they do not
want to travel by air because of the bad weather.
"Early morning, as soon as we arrived at St. Luke's, the FPGMA camp agreed
and was ready for an air transport and were waiting for the chopper to arrive,"
Laurel reported to Robredo.
When the rains and fog crept in after about 30 minutes, Laurel said the
Arroyos decided against air travel.
"Neurologist also advised against air travel cause on our level at the 16th
floor, we have no visibility," he said.
While in detention, Arroyo will not be permitted to use mobile forms of
communication such as cellular phones and laptop computers.
House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman asked leaders of the chamber yesterday to
intercede for Arroyo so she could have a mobile phone and a laptop while under
detention.
House leaders have asked lawmakers not to meddle in Arroyo's case.
The appeal was made after Mrs. Arroyo's allies have filed a resolution
proposing that she be held at her La Vista, Quezon City mansion, while militant
party-list representatives want her detained in a regular jail.
The militant lawmakers claim the government is giving her special treatment.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Arroyo should not be making unnecessary
demands as she is now a "detention prisoner."
She is also not permitted to use a radio and a television.
"She is a virtual incommunicado despite the pendency of a prejudicial
petition before the Supreme Court seeking the nullification of the formation of
the Joint DOJ-Comelec panel, the jurisdiction and proceedings of which have been
challenged as unconstitutional and void," Lagman said.
"A favorable decision of the Supreme Court will invalidate the panel's filing
of the electoral sabotage case against the former president as well as the
precipitate issuance of a warrant of arrest by the Regional Trial Court of Pasay
City which triggered her arrest and present detention," he said.– With Jess Diaz
FROM THE DAILY INQUIRER
Gloria Arroyo now in government hospital VMMC placed under
tight security By Miko Morelos, Nancy C. Carvajal
Smiling but silent was how Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was described when
she stepped inside the presidential suite of Veterans Memorial Medical Center
(VMMC) in Quezon City at around 4:10 p.m. Friday.
"She was smiling but she did not say a word when she entered the room and
looked around," Dr. Nona Legaspi, the VMMC director, told the Inquirer by
telephone. Legaspi said Arroyo, who is under arrest for alleged electoral
sabotage, was accompanied by her husband and sons to the suite.
Doctors from the Philippine National Police, and not Arroyo's private
doctors, turned over her medical records to VMMC doctors, Legaspi said. She said
that apart from the hospital management and PNP officials, Quezon City Mayor
Herbert Bautista was there to meet the former President and now Pampanga
representative.
Arroyo alighted from the white coaster that took her from her luxury suite in
St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig City, walked to a waiting wheelchair, and
passed through a metal detector on her way to her quarters.
Outside the hospital, Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado "Dato" Arroyo, the former
President's younger son, said his mother would now be able to rest. He said his
mother had been ready as early as 6 a.m. to leave St. Luke's but that some
confusion arose on the method of transfer.
"Fortunately, we were able to reach a compromise," he said.
The police had apparently wanted to use an ambulance, but the family asked
for a bulletproof vehicle.
Dato Arroyo said the family would follow the rule of law and its processes in
dealing with the electoral sabotage case against his mother.
Access passes
[PHOTO COURTESY OF MANILA STANDARD- Welcoming party Policemen secure
the Veterans Memorial Medical Center as the mini-bus bearing Arroyo and her
entourage enters the driveway of the government hospital that will serve as her
detention facility. Manny Palmero]
According to a source in the PNP, an electrical bed has been put in the main
room of the presidential suite, beside a king-size bed.
Members of Arroyo's immediate family, her congressional staff and lawyers are
included on a list of persons submitted to the Police Security and Protection
Group for issuance of access passes, said the source who asked not to be named
for lack of authority to speak with reporters.
"Those who have an access pass may enter the suite even without advance
notice," the source said.
"But everything that goes in will be inspected and checked," the source said.
He said the ban on cell phones and Internet access would be "strictly
implemented."
Members of the Quezon City Police District put up tight security measures in
the hospital complex and around the presidential suite.
Hundreds of policemen have been deployed in the premises since Friday
morning.
Expensive vehicles sporting license plates with the number 8 were seen in the
parking lot leading to the presidential suite.
9 hours
A disagreement over whether Arroyo would be flown or driven to VMMC took
about nine hours to resolve, with Arroyo's lawyers and representatives playing
hardball with authorities.
"Besides, who would want to fly in this weather?" said Ferdinand Topacio,
lawyer of Arroyo's husband, as rain poured outside the state-of-the-art St.
Luke's.
At around 3 p.m., officers from the Southern Police District lined up at
least 10 vehicles, including three police ambulances, at the back of the
hospital, on standby as Arroyo and her family boarded a white coaster.
The convoy left St. Luke's and headed straight to a road closed to traffic.
Security guards of Bonifacio Global City tried to head off members of the
media by closing the road after the last police car entered. But a female TV
reporter stormed out of her network's vehicle and single-handedly moved a metal
barrier used to seal the road.
"Hayaan na sila (Let them be)," the Inquirer overheard a uniformed security
guard shout to his colleagues who had tried to cut the media vehicles from the
convoy.
A man in plainclothes yelled an invective at the Inquirer as it made its way
to catch up with the Arroyo party.
Motorcycle units from the Highway Patrol Group guided the convoy as it
negotiated the streets leading to Edsa, which had moderate moving traffic all
day due to the rain. Police officers somehow succeeded in parting the sea of
vehicles stuck in traffic to make way for the former President's convoy.
Upon Arroyo's arrival at VMMC, police sentries immediately shut the
facility's gates to the media when the tail car of the convoy entered the
grounds.
Taking turns
The sight of Arroyo's convoy leaving St. Luke's capped the tense stakeout at
St. Luke's, with some hospital employees appearing relieved.
Arroyo's spokespersons Elena Bautista-Horn and Raul Lambino, as well as
Topacio, took turns in assailing the Aquino administration for its purported
bumbling of the security arrangements for the transfer.
"We were ready since 6 a.m. The former President wanted to leave early so
that there's no traffic," Horn told reporters at past 8 a.m. "If we made our way
through the traffic, we'd be giving people another reason to hate Congresswoman
Arroyo."
Horn persistently thumbed down the prospects of Arroyo being airlifted to
VMMC, citing the latter's purported fear of flying in a helicopter and the bad
weather, and pointing out that "in the three meetings, [airlifting] was never
brought up."
She said the police preferred the chopper because it would be "safer" for
Arroyo in terms of security, but she harped that the weather was unsafe for air
travel.
Asked whether the police might have thought about the supposed plot to kill
the former President in pushing for the airlift, Horn told the Inquirer that the
plan "was not to shoot Mrs. Arroyo."
She was referring to an alleged plot, a snide reference to the former
President's height, called "Put the little girl to sleep."
No glitch
PNP Director General Nicanor Bartolome denied allegations by Arroyo's camp
that the government had purposely delayed her transfer, saying that it
considered only her "safety, security and comfort."
He said that thanks to the PNP's well-crafted plan, the trip to VMMC took
only 42 minutes and was without a glitch.
Bartolome said he personally gave the order to drop an earlier plan to
transport Arroyo by helicopter, and that contrary to Horn's statement, Arroyo's
camp had been aware that such an option was being considered at the start.
He said that in previous meetings, Arroyo's camp had never suggested that
they leave St. Luke's as early as 6 a.m. "In fact, it was they who requested
that the transfer not be done so early in the morning because it might be hard
for the former President," he said.
Bartolome said the PNP had studied the situation on the ground, including
traffic and the rainy weather, as well as protesters and Arroyo supporters
camped out at VMMC, before deciding on when to move Arroyo.
"I can say it was successful because there were no glitches during the
transfer," he said.
Bartolome said stringent security measures would be enforced by the PNP at
VMMC, including four levels of security checks by the Quezon City Police
District and the Police Security and Protection Group, which would be Arroyo's
primary custodian.
Picture-taking
Lambino, who had just come from Europe where he supposedly brought Arroyo's
plight to international attention, criticized the lack of decision-makers at St.
Luke's during the day.
He said Arroyo could have left sooner had Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo
been there to call the shots.
While Lambino spoke with reporters at past 2 p.m., text messages containing
information purportedly from Topacio indicated that Arroyo had left the
hospital.
Lambino was immediately asked to confirm the information because earlier in
the day, a decoy convoy left St. Luke's in an apparent attempt to distract the
media. Only a handful of reporters tailed the five-vehicle convoy that included
a black sport utility vehicle and police patrol cars.
Arroyo's lawyer immediately phoned a staff member at the 16th-floor suite
while TV cameras rolled. After a quick conversation, he said Arroyo was still in
the suite.
The former President also allowed photographs to be taken while awaiting her
transfer. The photographers present decided to send Bullit Marquez of The
Associated Press, with the agreement that all media organizations would be
provided copies of the pictures.
Marquez told the Inquirer that Arroyo was relaxed as he took photos of her in
her suite. She walked around the living and dining areas, and even brushed her
teeth, unsupported, he said.
Arroyo was photographed in a white dress with black diagonal stripes, with
and without her neck brace.
Her supporters, claiming they were acting on their own, showed up at St.
Luke's early in the morning. But the rain forced them to take shelter in a
building in front of the hospital before dispersing quietly.
About 385 residents of Angeles City trooped to St. Luke's to monitor Arroyo's
transfer.
Angeles Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan said 1,000 more Pampanga residents were also
at VMMC since 6:30 a.m.
Relief
Arroyo was "jolly" and even said goodbye to her police bodyguards as she left
St. Luke's, according to Sheriff Rogelio Buenviaje of the Pasay City Regional
Trial Court.
Buenviaje told reporters that Arroyo wanted to get the transfer over with as
quickly as possible, and appeared "very relieved" when she reached VMMC.
"I myself am relieved that this is finally over," he said.
Buenviaje added that the court had yet to set the dates for Arroyo's
appearance in court. With reports from DJ Yap and Julie M.
Aurelio in Manila, and Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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rights reserved
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HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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