Court inspects detention facilities

MANILA, Philippines - The Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 112 inspected yesterday several police, military and government hospitals in Metro Manila to look for a possible detention facility for former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Judge Jesus Mupas and lawyer Joel Pelicano, clerk of court of RTC Branch 112, visited the Armed Forces of the Philippine Medical Center (AFPMC) along V. Luna St. and the Philippine Orthopedic Hospital, both in Quezon City, the detention cell at the Southern Police District in Taguig City, and the presidential suite at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) that was used as the detention cell of former President Joseph Estrada when he was on trial for plunder.

Pelicano told reporters that the court is considering hospital detention for Arroyo similar to the accommodation granted to Estrada during his trial for plunder after he was ousted from office by a people power revolt in 2001.

Commander Jerome Ochoco, spokesman for the AFPMC, said the team of Mupas arrived at the hospital about 1:30 p.m. and inspected a room on the second floor.

The room was the unit used by Arroyo’s co-accused, former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., when he was treated for a skin disease in 2010.

Military sources said the inspection was unexpected as the AFPMC did not receive a notification letter from the Pasay RTC.

“The AFP Medical Center has not received any court order or any directive from higher headquarters either from the Office of the Chief of Staff or the Public Information Office pertaining to the possible confinement of (Arroyo) at this military medical facility,” Ochoco said.

AFP spokesman Col. Arnulfo Burgos Jr. said the hospital has enough facilities to treat all kinds of patients.

Pelicano said the court initially ruled out a regular jail after taking into consideration the actual medical condition of Arroyo, which up to now has not yet been established by the court.

Pelicano described the SPD detention cell prepared for Arroyo as “spacious for ordinary prisoners.”

Pelicano made his comment after he and Mupas inspected the 4-meter by 10-meter air-conditioned room at SPD.

“It’s quite spacious. For ordinary people it is already big. But for people like GMA who is a former president, it’s a big change,” said Pelicano.

Pelicano said among the issues under consideration are security, Arroyo’s health condition, and the detention site’s appropriateness for her stature as incumbent congresswoman and former president.

He said that it is still too early to decide where to detain Arroyo, since her lawyers and the lawyers of complainant Comelec would still have to file their pleadings before Mupas.

Pelicano said the decision might be out by the second week of December.

Both the prosecution and defense panels were given five days to submit their comments and motions.

“The court will resolve the issue before Christmas,” he said.

Among the motions that would be resolved before the court issues a commitment order are the pending motion of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for immediate transfer of Arroyo from her suite at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig where she is being treated for a rare bone disorder, to a detention cell at SPD also in Taguig.

The lawyers of Arroyo filed yesterday a motion to allow the former president to be placed under house arrest.

Lawyer Jay Flaminiano said they filed it a day earlier because Wednesday has been declared a holiday.

Her lawyers initially wanted hospital arrest for the former president.

But last Friday, the lawyers, led by Jose Flaminiano, Jay’s father, withdrew the motion and instead sought house arrest.

According to Arroyo’s orthopedic surgeon Mario Ver, the former president is already “medically fit” to be discharged from hospital.

The defense panel told the court that they recommend that Arroyo be placed under house arrest at her residence in La Vista, Quezon City pending trial on electoral sabotage charges filed against the former president.

The Comelec filed electoral sabotage charges against against Arroyo, former provincial elections supervisor Lintang Bedol, and Ampatuan Sr. for allegedly rigging results in senatorial elections in Maguindanao in 2007.

The filing of information was approved by Comelec commissioners in session last Nov. 18 upon recommendation of the joint Department of Justice-Comelec panel that conducted the preliminary investigation.

The charges against Arroyo were based on the testimony of former Maguindanao provincial

administrator Norie Unas, who claimed that he heard the former

president instruct Ampatuan to ensure the 12-0 victory of the senatorial candidates of the then administration’s Team Unity alliance in Maguindanao during an event at Malacañang days before the polls.

Pelicano said the Pasay court would use the legal procedures adopted by the Sandiganbayan in the detention of former President Estrada during the prosecution of the plunder charge filed against him.

Erap: GMA deserves respect

Former President Joseph Estrada said that Arroyo is a woman and deserves to be given respect, despite his earlier statement that she should face all the charges against her.

Estrada told the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) that Arroyo should be detained in a government hospital.

He said he does not want to see Arroyo suffering the same experience he had when 3,000 policemen arrested him in his house at Polk Street in North Greenhills, San Juan in 2001.

“I don’t like her to suffer what I experienced. I’m a man, she’s a woman. Let’s give a little comfort to her. We should respect the woman,” Estrada said.

Estrada said there was no comparison between him and Arroyo.

He said he was “humiliated, demonized and treated like a common criminal.”

And to show he is a criminal, Estrada said the police immediately released his mugshots to the public.

“It pains me much whenever I see my grandchildren crying while visiting me. My visitors, men and women, were frisked every time they visited me. I suffered much,” Estrada said.

Estrada said despite the bad experience, he faced the charges and even turned down twice the offers made by Arroyo, through her then Justice Secretary Hernando Perez, to leave the country and go into exile on condition that he sign a resignation letter as president.

“I told Nani (Perez) that I would not leave the country, even if you jail me. So, I was jailed,” Estrada said.

Estrada said he was ready to defend himself even before the impeachment court in the Senate.

However, Estrada said the prosecution panel walked out of the proceedings when it was his turn to present evidence.

Instead of immediately quashing the complaint against him for failure to prosecute, then Chief Justice Hilario Davide did nothing.

Estrada said his life in jail had been miserable and his wife, former senator Luisa Ejercito, had to walk one kilometer from the gate just to visit him.

He said he pities Arroyo because unlike him, Arroyo has no supporters going to visit her.

Meanwhile, supporters of Arroyo issued a manifesto of support to the proposal to place the former president under house arrest in her hometown in Lubao, Pampanga.

Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo, president of the Pampanga Mayors’ League (PML), said Arroyo and the members of her family had nothing to do with the manifesto.

He said the manifesto would be forwarded to the former president’s lawyers who are seeking house arrest for Arroyo after she is discharged from SLMC when her condition improves.

Pelayo said the manifesto was signed by members of the PLM and leaders of senior citizens, youth groups, business and other sectors in the province.

Arroyo had built a bungalow beside the parish church in Lubao during the last years of her term as president.

Behind the main house, a separate one-storey structure was also built, apparently for visitors.

“We just want her to have an alternative in Lubao as another alternative to the Arroyo residence in La Vista in Quezon City,” said Pelayo.

He also said her staying in her Lubao house would enable her to continue serving her constituents in the second district of Pampanga.

“Besides, she is already a senior citizen and a woman at that,” he said. With Jose Rodel Clapano, Aie Balagtas See, Alexis Romero, Mayen Jaymalin, Ding Cervantes, Ric Sapnu