GMA attends brother’s funeral

MANILA, Philippines - Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo attended her brother’s interment in Taguig City yesterday.

Arroyo left her place of detention at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center to attend the burial of her older brother Arturo Macapagal at the Heritage Park.

Security was tight that even taking photographs of the former president attending the funeral ceremony was prevented by security personnel.

At 9:50 a.m., the former president’s security convoy arrived at the Heritage Park’s C5 gate and proceeded to the cemetery’s funeral chapel where the wake of her older brother, businessman and former Olympian was being held.

Shortly past 2 p.m., the security convoy of the former president made its way out of the cemetery and returned to the VMMC. 

Macapagal, 72, succumbed to stage four prostate cancer on Tuesday after being confined at the Makati Medical Center since July 2.

Macapagal represented the country in target shooting competitions for the Olympics in Munich 1972 and Montreal in 1976.

In 1972, Macapagal was able to establish a national record in Olympic free pistol that remained unbroken for 21 years, the longest in the history of the country’s shooting sport.

The Sandiganbayan First Division allowed Arroyo to attend her brother’s wake last Aug. 13 and yesterday’s Mass and interment from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

However, the Anti-Graft Court did not grant Arroyo’s request to attend the traditional 9th day novena for her brother scheduled on Aug. 19.

Arroyo earlier asked the Sandiganbayan for a five-day furlough to attend Macapagal’s wake and burial.

The former president, who has been under hospital arrest at the VMMC since October 2012, is facing a plunder case before the Sandiganbayan’s First Division in connection with the alleged misuse of the P366-million intelligence fund of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.