Manila: A suburban Pasay City court hearing the electoral sabotage case against Gloria Arroyo has allowed the beleaguered former president to use communication gadgets while in detention.
A radio report by the Bombo station said that besides allowing Arroyo the liberty to use her mobile phone, television and laptop, Judge Jesus Mupas of the Pasay City regional trial court branch 112 has also allowed Arroyo, who is a member of the House of Representatives, to attend the traditional daily evening mass inside the hospital compound.
It is a tradition among Filipinos to mark the nine days in the run-up to Christmas Day with daily mass.
Earlier, House speaker Feliciano Belmonte had indicated that the decision on whether Arroyo can use communications devices and computers is a matter for the court to decide.
The former leader had pleaded that she needed to have access to a computer and telephone to perform her tasks as a legislator and that she also planned to write her memoirs as a former head of state.
Arroyo was arrested on November 18 while confined at the Saint Lukes' Medical Centre in suburban Taguig City. The court case relates to allegations that she issued the order to manipulate the results of the 2007 elections to the senate seat in Maguindanao province. Electoral sabotage is an unbailable offence.
On December 9, Arroyo was transferred from the private Saint Lukes' Medical Centre to the government-run Veterans Memorial Medical Centre in suburban Quezon City.
Aside from Arroyo, others named in the case are former Commission on Elections chief Benjamin Abalos, ex-Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Senior and several other Comelec and military officials.
In a related development, Abalos accused Judge Mupas of trying to extort money from him in exchange for a favourable ruling on the latter's appeal for bail and to downgrade his penalty to house detention.
