Arroyo flying to Germany for treatment, says Belmonte
Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is planning to travel this month to Germany for medical treatment and to New York to participate in a forum hosted by her former classmate, former US President Bill Clinton.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Wednesday told reporters that he approved a week ago the travel authority requested by Arroyo, now a representative of Pampanga province, who has yet to return to work since undergoing a series of surgeries on her neck and spine last month.
Belmonte said he had signed three travel passes for Arroyo, including to Germany and New York.
“Based on our information, she is in discomfort. [But] she’s still very much in control. I urge her to go to the best facilities [here] or abroad because we want her to recover soon,” the Speaker said.
‘Rare disease’
At a press conference, House Deputy Minority Leader Danilo Suarez said that in a recent meeting with Arroyo at her residence in La Vista, Quezon City, she disclosed that she was suffering from a “rare disease” that only specialists overseas could cure.
“The second operation was successful. There were complications that had nothing to do with the second operation. It’s a rare disease and we are not [allowed] to say it in public,” Suarez said.
He said the ailment was “life-threatening.”
But in a statement issued hours after Suarez’s press conference, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo said that his wife’s ailment was “hypoparathyroidism,” and that it was not life-threatening.
The ailment, an endocrine disorder that decreases the level of the parathyroid hormone and affects a patient’s bone structure, was announced by Arroyo’s chief physician, Juliet Gopez-Cervantes, on August 17 at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City.
Pocahontas
Suarez said Arroyo could walk around anywhere inside and outside her residence as long as it was level ground.
He said that he spoke with the former President on Tuesday night and that her voice sounded frail and halting.
“I think she needs our prayers, starting from the media,” Suarez said.
He added that one of Arroyo’s grandchildren observed that with her neck brace, she looked like Pocahontas, the Indian maiden immortalized in literature and lately in cartoons.
At a meeting with fellow members of the House minority, Suarez said Arroyo appeared to have lost considerable weight and showed signs of discomfort during their recent conversation.
But despite being in pain from the neck brace, she will still give inputs to the Lakas-Kampi party’s moves next month, when it will start building up its 2013 senatorial slate to be led by Senator Ramon Revilla Jr., Suarez said.
Exile
In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Leyte Representative Sergio Apostol Jr. raised the possibility that Arroyo might choose not to return and go into exile even in countries with an extradition treaty with the Philippines.
“Extradition does not cover political crimes, including charges of corruption and cheating in the elections. She can claim that these were politically motivated,” said Apostol, a former staunch ally of Arroyo.
