GMA, Miriam won’t attend P-Noy’s SONA

MANILA, Philippines - Former President and now Pampanga congresswoman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will not attend President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) at the Batasang Pambansa Complex tomorrow.

Sen. Miriam Santiago, who is suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, will also miss the opening of the Senate session and the President’s SONA.

Arroyo’s lawyer Anacleto Diaz said his client does not intend to ask the Sandiganbayan to allow her to leave the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC), where she is under hospital arrest for plunder.

Arroyo has not even asked the anti-graft court to allow her to take her oath before Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. as required under the rules of the House of Representatives.

“It’s too late. As far as I am concerned she has no plans,” Diaz told The STAR yesterday when asked if the former president expressed any intention to attend the opening of the 16th regular session of Congress.

He said his client does not also have a television in her room at the VMMC to allow her to watch the President’s SONA.

Diaz said he was not asked to file any motion before the Sandiganbayan to grant her a furlough so she could take her oath. He added that failure to take her oath before Belmonte would not affect Arroyo’s status as congresswoman.

“How can an oath result in disenfranchising somebody who has been overwhelmingly elected by her constituents?” he said.

“It does not in any way affect her election as representative of Pampanga,” he added.

Blood test

In a statement issued yesterday, Santiago said that she has been getting treatment for her chronic fatigue syndrome from her team of doctors at the Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, California and her medical team in Manila.

A blood test for Vitamin D was performed on Santiago recently, the results of which showed that her levels were highly deficient.

The blood test showed that Santiago’s Vitamin D level is only 17 units when the normal level is 30 to 80 units.

“I want to share this information with the millions of Filipinos suffering form chronic fatigue, because in our country, Vitamin D deficiency is often overlooked,” Santiago said.

She aired her suspicion that her Vitamin D deficiency could have triggered her hypertension.

Santiago said debilitating tiredness has kept her at home for nearly six months, but is hopeful that she will be back to normal after taking a megadose of Vitamin D, or 2,000 units daily.

Apart from some speaking engagements, Santiago has generally been out of the public eye since last January when she took a leave of absence from the Senate due to her ailment.

Before Santiago decided to take a break, the blood vessels in her eyes burst due to hypertension.

Santiago had engaged then Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile in a word war after she accused him of abusing his power over the funds of the Senate.

Santiago was furious after learning that all but four senators, including herself, were given P1.6 million in additional maintenance and other operating expenditures sourced from the savings of the Senate on top of a P250,000 cash gift from Enrile.

The stress took its toll on Santiago and she was forced to stay away from the Senate.– With Marvin Sy