70 lawmakers seek Christmas furlough for GMA

MANILA, Philippines - About 70 administration and opposition lawmakers have signed a resolution asking the Sandiganbayan to allow former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a furlough this Christmas.

1-BAP party-list Rep. Silvestre Bello III, author of House Resolution 537, said he presented his measure at the meeting of the justice committee and this would be tackled in the next hearing.

“I made it clear (before the committee) that I filed the resolution not because Rep. Arroyo is a former president or a former vice president or a former senator, I filed that resolution out of Christian charity and out of humanitarian and compassionate considerations,” Bello told reporters.

He said Arroyo, who is detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City on plunder charges, is still presumed innocent until proven guilty.

He recalled when he was justice secretary during the Ramos administration, he would sometimes allow some convicts a leave to attend to urgent personal matters, like the burial of a close relative.

“Is that unprecedented? No. And this is not a demand but an appeal to the honorable justices of the Sandiganbayan,” Bello said.

Minority leader San Juan City Rep. Ronaldo Zamora said the resolution was intended to show Arroyo that she is not forgotten by her colleagues.

“She may be absent but she was not out of mind,” Zamora said.

Meanwhile, Ferdinand Topacio, a lawyer of former first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, said his client might file a petition before the Sandiganbayan to lift the restrictions imposed on his wife.

Sources said Mike was no longer allowed to sleep with his wife at the VMMC, and that her exercise time was limited to an hour a day.

Arroyo now also cannot attend mass at the VMMC chapel. Masses can only be held inside her hospital suite.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo has 30 more minutes to spend with family and friends as provided in the amended policy being implemented by the Philippine National Police (PNP)-Police Security Protection Group (PSPG).

Senior Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac, PNP Public Information Office chief, said nothing changed in the policy, which indicated that no one could sleep over in her hospital room at the VMMC, which is serving as her detention cell.

“PSPG director Chief Superintendent Roman Felix pointed out that they are just implementing the existing rules and policies with some minor amendment,” Sindac added.

There were reports that Mr. Arroyo was spending nights in his wife’s room.

“The rules remain the same, the only change was the new amendment issued last Dec. 2, wherein the visiting hours are now 30 minutes longer,” said Sindac. “Basically, before the visiting days were Tuesday to Friday, from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Now, the visiting hours from 3 p.m. to 9:30, and Saturday to Sunday and holidays 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.”  –  With Cecille Suerte Felipe