Philippines' former leader Arroyo's birthday wish: Unity

Manila: Former president Gloria Arroyo, a congresswoman detained for alleged electoral fraud, said her birthday wish is unity for all Filipinos.

"I hope that chaos and unhappiness will be gone in the Philippines. It is my fervent hope that we will be truly united in the pursuit of long-lasting happiness and prosperity (in our country)," Arroyo said in a statement released by her staff at the House of Representatives.

Three tumultous and divisive political events have occurred in contemporary Philippine history: A people-backed military mutiny ousted former Philippine presidents Ferdinand Marcos in 1986; a military-backed street protests ousted former president Joseph Estrada in 2001; and this year, President Benigno Aquino pushed for Arroyo's incarceration due to alleged electoral fraud in 2007.

"Let us pray so hard that wounds (of divisiveness) will be healed soon, with faith, and (so that all Filipinos) resolve to help one another and move as a nation towards a brighter future," said Arroyo.

Filipinos should "pray for forgiveness this Lenten Season and continue to be inspired by the love bestowed on us by Jesus," Arroyo said.

She also wished that the Philippines will be protected from calamities, disasters, and poverty.

The Philippines always suffer from earthquakes and typhoons that bring landslides and floods that destroy lives and crops.

Arroyo is celebrating her birthday, for the first time, outside of her home, at the Veterans Memorial Medical Centre where she is currently held under arrest for the electoral case filed against her in a court in suburban Pasay City early this year.

Arroyo will turn 65 on April 5, but it will be Holy Thursday, part of the Lenten Season which is observed by Catholics who commemorate annually the crucifixion of Jesus Christ which happened in Israel's Golgotha 2,000 years ago.

Arroyo became president and finished the last three years in office of former president Estrada from 2001 to 2004. He was ousted in 2001 by military-backed street protests that were launched by those who were against the abrupt ending of his impeachment trial at the senate on late 2000.

Arroyo ran for office in 2004 and won over the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. But in 2005, the camps of Estrada and Poe claimed she rigged the 2004 elections to win and get six more years in office.

At the time, former President Corazon Aquino, a former Arroyo ally, joined the Estrada camp.

It happened because Arroyo had ruled in 2004, at the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC), that the farmers of the Hacienda Luisita (owned by the Cojuangco side of Aquino) were right in their complaint, that the share of stocks, instead of land distribution, that were offered to them by the Cojuangcos in a referendum in 1987, did not make their lives better.

This year, President Benigno Aquino pushed for Arroyo's imprisonment. Political observers claimed this was due to the Supreme Court's ruling in 2011 that the Cojuangcos must distribute land at the Hacienda Lusitia to some 6,000 farmers. The ruling upheld Arroyo's 2004 ruling as PARC head.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona is undergoing impeachment trial at the Senate. Aquino's allies at the House of Representatives had impeached Corona and elevated the trial at the Senate.