PHNO-HL: ENRILE CAUTIONS AQUINO AGAINST PUTTING ARROYO IN REGULAR JAIL

ENRILE CAUTIONS AQUINO AGAINST PUTTING ARROYO IN REGULAR
JAIL

[PHOTO -Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
deserves better treatment, says Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. CONTRIBUTED FILE PHOTO]
MANILA, JUNE 22, 2012 (INQUIRER) By
Christian V. Esguerra - How serious really is the medical condition of
former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?
Whatever the case, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile cautioned the Aquino
administration on Thursday against mistreating Arroyo, now a Pampanga
representative, noting that she has not been convicted in the electoral sabotage
case filed against her.
Enrile was not amenable to transferring Arroyo from her suite at the
Veterans' Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City to a regular jail, during the
course of her trial.
"No matter how bad they think about her, she is presumed innocent until she
is really convicted," he said in a radio interview with DWIZ.
Enrile said he had received information that the former President remained in
"critical" condition, apparently because of a lingering problem with her
cervical spine.
"My information is that she cannot swallow, she takes only liquid, and no
doctor here wants to handle her," he said in Filipino. "I think if something
happens to her, that would be a big issue."
Enrile reminded the administration about political upheavals in the past
triggered by the death of a political figure.
He noted that no less than the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., father of
President Aquino, had been allowed to seek medical treatment abroad despite
being convicted by a military court during the Marcos regime.
Enrile served as Marcos' defense minister and was one of the key implementers
of martial law. His defection, along with then Vice Chief of Staff General Fidel
Ramos, triggered the EDSA People Power Revolution in 1986.
"So long as it was (a) medical (case), we allowed prisoners to go to the
hospital because it was a matter of life and death," he recalled.
Arroyo remains an accused in the court of law and must therefore be treated
with a presumption of innocence, according to Enrile.
"Perhaps, it might turn out later that they have no evidence against her, yet
you've put her in jail ('bartolina'). That would be difficult, especially with
her condition," he said.
Enrile said putting Arroyo in the company of regular criminals in jail would
not sit well with the international community, considering that she is a former
president.
"What if she dies in jail? How would it look like to the rest of the world
when you put a former president in jail together with (regular criminals)?"
Mike Arroyo opposes regular jail for former president, claims
poor health By Leila B. Salaverria Philippine Daily Inquirer 2:41 am
| Friday, June 22nd, 2012

[PHOTO -Former first Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo MARIANNE BERMUDEZ/Inquirer]
The husband of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Thursday bristled
at suggestions that she be transferred to a regular jail, stressing that she
continues to be in ill health.
Jose Miguel Arroyo said the former President, who is under hospital arrest at
the Veterans Memorial Medical Center while undergoing trial for the non-bailable
crime of electoral sabotage, still finds it hard to eat and needs medical care.
Arroyo said his wife has been finding hard to eat and has been in need of
special medical care.
"She's still not eating. She's undergoing therapy everyday. I think's it's
twice a day," he told reporters at the Sandiganbayan, where he has been
contesting his graft case over the allegedly anomalous sale of helicopters to
the Philippine National Police.
The former President has been operated on for problems with her spine. She
also contracted shingles earlier.
Asked about statements that the former President should be in a regular
detention cell, Arroyo said the electoral sabotage case against his wife was not
even strong.
"Their witness was all hearsay, so their evidence was very weak. Then they
want to put her in a detention cell. What's wrong with them?" he said.
He said later that given the weakness of the case against his wife, she
should be granted bail instead.
President Benigno Aquino's spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, said the former
President should be in jail if all was well with her.
The former president, who is also the incumbent representative of Pampanga,
has a pending petition to be allowed to post bail in her electoral sabotage
case.
She is also facing graft charges before the Sandiganbayan in connection with
the controversial national broadband network deal, but these are all bailable
offenses.
FROM MANILA STANDARD
Solons back Arroyo's treatment abroad Posted May
14th, 2012 by Maricel Cruz & filed under Main Stories.

LAWMAKERS on Sunday crossed party lines to demand that the Aquino
administration allow former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo to seek medical treatment abroad due to her life-threatening
condition as a result of the complications arising from her previous operations
in her spine.
But House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. suggested that Mrs. Arroyo have a
series of procedures first to verify that a "corrective" operation could not be
done in the country.
"I think we need to hear from the specialists," Belmonte told reporters.
Although the courts would have the final say on her departure, Belmonte said,
it was necessary to determine first if Arroyo really needed to go abroad for
treatment.
He said any medical procedure on Arroyo, who is accused of election cheating,
could not be done easily because she is under hospital arrest.
Arroyo is confined at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center on electoral
sabotage charges in the 2007 senatorial elections. Her case is pending trial at
the Pasay City court.
Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong, an Arroyo ally, expressed high hopes that
the court would allow the former President to go abroad for her "urgently needed
surgery for humanitarian reasons."
Occidental Mindoro Rep. Maria Amelita Villarosa, another staunch Arroyo ally,
had earlier confirmed reports that the Pampanga congresswoman had a
"disheartening and life- threatening" condition.
The reports claim that Arroyo's condition is an offshoot of the Quantum
electro-chemistry examination conducted by a cardiologist at the Makati Medical
Center on Thursday. The reports say Arroyo's choking is due to the titanium
implant that has been blocking her esophagus.
Villarosa said Mrs. Arroyo was now on a "soup diet" due to a "choking
sensation" and had been experiencing "shortness of breath."
"Her medical condition is very life-threatening," she said.
Administration allies Bagong Henerasyon party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy
and Western Samar Rep. Mel Senen Sarmiento said Mrs. Arroyo should be allowed to
seek medical treatment abroad for humanitarian reasons.
"It is really necessary that she be allowed to leave the country for a
'corrective' surgery, especially if its life threatening," Herrera-Dy said.
House Assistant Majority Leader and Citizens Battle against Corruption Rep.
Sherwin Tugna, meanwhile, underscored the need for the government to make a
comprehensive verification of Mrs. Arroyo's condition.
Tugna, a public prosecutor in the trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, said
"the State has an interest and a duty to its people to make sure that persons
charged with non-bailable offenses should be in the territory and jurisdiction
of the State."
"A thorough examination of her health is needed to verify the necessity of
going abroad for medical treatment," Tugna said.
"The Courts will decide according to the law and according to what is best
for the criminal justice system of the country."

(Published in the Manila Standard Today newspaper on /2012/May/14)


Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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