Manila: An anti-graft court in the Philippines has permitted detained former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to temporarily leave hospital detention so she can be with her family on her birthday.
The Sandiganbayan First Division, a special court that handles cases involving government officials accused of committing impropriety and other offences, permitted Arroyo to take a 3-day leave from detention at the Veterans Memorial Medical Centre (VMMC) from April 4 to 6. She was President from 2001 to 2010 and served her full term.
Arroyo turns 67 on April 5.
She had been elected for a second term as Representative of Pampanga provinces’ second congressional district during the May 2013 midterm elections.
The palace, for its part, extended its birthday wishes to the former president. The incumbent leader, President Benigno Aquino III is known not to be on good terms with Arroyo.
“We are wishing her happiness on her birthday together with her loved ones,” Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said.
In February, the Sandiganbayan court rejected an appeal from Arroyo’s lawyers for bail on the charge of misusing funds of the state-run gaming concern, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
The court, in its ruling, said the argument by Arroyo’s lawyers that her health was suffering because of her continued detention, was not sufficient to grant her temporary liberty while being tried for misusing P366 million (Dh3,017,0741) funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
Arroyo’s lawyers had argued that her continued detention at VMMC in suburban Quezon City was taking its toll on the former President’s health as she was already suffering from depression aside from other health concerns.
But the court said being depressed was not unusual for any detainee, President or otherwise.
“Depression is common to all detainees, whether a former president or not,” it said.
“To treat accused differently might be violative if the equal protection clause of the constitution,” the court added.
In pushing for Arroyo’s bail, her lawyers, Jose Flaminiano, Aufelene Anne Laxamana and Laurence Hector Arroyo, pointed to other legal precedents where a medically ill defendant was granted temporary freedom on humanitarian grounds.
Among the most prominent of such cases, Arroyo’s lawyers had pointed out, was that involving the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr, father of the incumbent President, who was allowed by former President Ferdinand Marcos during the 1980s to seek medical attention in the United States while facing trial for sedition.
Since leaving the presidency in 2010, Arroyo had been slapped with a barrage of cases ranging from misusing funds of the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA), squandering finances of the PCSO, among others.
Some of the cases had not prospered in court and were eventually dismissed but at this point, one of the few remaining unresolved issues is that involving the PCSO.
Arroyo is said to be suffering from a medical condition involving her throat and spine which requires her to wear a neck brace.
The same medical problem also causes her to occasionally experience difficulty swallowing food and has seen her losing weight considerably.
