Supporters of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Thursday insisted that she should remain in the Veterans Medical Memorial Center despite a medical bulletin issued by the hospital saying she no longer needs close medical attention.
Lawyer Benjamin Santos, Arroyo’s counsel in her poll sabotage case, said reports that his client is well are inaccurate.
“She [Arroyo] is very clearly suffering from pain with every movement in the neck and in the back,” he told reporters Thursday at the sidelines of the case’s hearing.
He added that the former President, who is currently detained at the Veterans Medical Memorial Center, or VMMC, in Quezon City due to her bone mineral disorder, “still needs therapy for all the pain she is suffering from.”
Santos’ statement contradicts a medical report submitted by the VMMC to the Pasay Regional Trial Court Branch 112, where Mrs. Arroyo’s poll sabotage case is being tried.
Felda Domingo, court spokesperson, said the hospital had informed presiding Judge Jesus Mupas that Mrs. Arroyo “can independently perform already her daily life activities.”
“May konting choking sa kanyang paglunok, konting backpains na puwede naman daw maremedyuhan ng hot compress at Paracetamol,” said Domingo in an interview aired over TV news program “24 Oras”.
Maria Juana Valeza, lawyer for the Commission on Elections, the complainant in the poll sabotage case, said that they will keep studying a proposal to revive a motion asking for Mrs. Arroyo’s transfer to an ordinary detention facility.
Mrs. Arroyo, who is accused of rigging the 2007 elections in her favor, had earlier filed a petition before the Pasay court requesting that she be released on bail, claiming the prosecution’s evidence against her is weak. — DVM
