Manila: Some 300 policemen accompanied former President Gloria Arroyo as she was transferred from a private hospital, where she was confined since last month, to a government-run facility in Quezon City, to be placed under hospital arrest for alleged electoral sabotage in 2007.
Looking frail and haggard, Arroyo arrived at the Veterans Memorial Medical Centre yesterday afternoon, nine hours after she left St Luke's Medical Centre in Taguig. Arroyo refused to be ferried by a helicopter in bad weather and had to be transported by road.
"She was not handcuffed when we brought her to the presidential suite of the Veterans Memorial Medical Centre," said Pasay City regional trial court sheriff Rodelio Buenviaje.
Separate rallies
"She was wearing a neck brace. She looked fine. She wore a short-sleeved blouse which revealed the scar of her neck operation," said Buenviaje.
"Our plan was to take a taxi because the authorities insisted that she should be transferred by air. We had three meetings with them and we agreed that she should be transferred by land (not by air)," said her spokesman Elena Bautista-Horn.
"She has experienced near helicopter crashes. She's afraid of riding a helicopter in bad weather," argued her lawyer Lawrence Arroyo.
Her husband Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo and her son Congressman Dato Arroyo were with her in the van that took Arroyo to her new detention centre.
Anti-riot police personnel and K-9 and bomb squads were part of the security preparations for Arroyo at St Luke's and at the Veterans.
Pro- and anti-Arroyo camps held separate rallies and had to be separated by the police when she arrived at the medical centre. Earlier, the same camps held a vigil at St Luke's.
"Get well soon; Take care of Arroyo; Free her," said several placards that were carried by the pro-Arroyo group. "Jail Arroyo," read one placard carried by a member of the anti-Arroyo camp.
Meanwhile, Local government secretary Jesse Robredo said the government had turned down her request to have a chef to prepare food for her at the Veterans.
