MANILA, Philippines—Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will be much safer at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center, Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo said on Thursday.
Robredo made the statement in the wake of reports from the Arroyo camp of an alleged “Put the Little Girl to Sleep”, an alleged plot to assassinate the former leader.
“There is no way that harm would come her way while confined at the Veterans hospital. It is the duty of this government to use all its resources to secure and protect her. If anything wrong happens to her while inside said government facility, then it will be the liability of this administration,” he said.
Robredo lauded the decision of the Pasay Reginal Trial Court to transfer Arroyo from the posh St. Luke’s Medical City to the government-run hospital, saying the government has even “more reason to secure her.”
“The government does not want something wrong to happen to her. At the Veterans hospital, we can easily pinpoint full accountability on the people securing her and those attending to her medical needs,” Robredo said.
On the alleged slay plot, Robredo said he could order the Philippine National Police to investigate the allegation.
But he urged the Arroyo camp to provide “details on where the threat on her life is coming from. If they do, we will immediately conduct an immediate investigation on the matter.”
At the same time, the DILG chief dared Arroyo’s spokesperson Elena Bautista-Horn to make public the alleged plan to kill Arroyo.
He surmised the alleged threat could be just be a part of the Arroyo camp’s strategy to keep the former president on hospital or house arrest.