PNP Chief Director General Nicanor A. Bartolome
Police have beefed up security at the sprawling compound of Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City even after a court ruling deferred the transfer of former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the government-run hospital.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer learned that up to 200 policemen had been deployed at VMMC as of Monday, and that as many as four control points had been set up to screen Arroyo’s visitors.
Philippine National Police Director General Nicanor Bartolome welcomed the postponement of Arroyo’s transfer which was initially set for Tuesday, noting that the VMMC’s presidential suite was not yet ready for its VIP occupant.
As of Monday night, the suite still did not have a bed while the kitchen and bathroom were still being refurbished, Bartolome said.
“Hopefully all of these will be finished before Friday, although we are very ready with our security arrangements,” he told reporters in Camp Crame.
Bartolome said the PNP would strictly enforce the visiting hours to be set by the court, which could be patterned after schedules observed in hospitals or in jails.
Arroyo’s visitors will have to go through four control points before getting inside the hospital, according to Bartolome.
They will have to pass through an inspection area, a holding area, a documentation and processing area where visitors must leave behind their phones and other banned items, and a final inspection area.
“There is no exemption. Everyone will go through (the control points). There is no other entrance,” Bartolome said.
Media teams have been barred from entering the complex since Saturday. Police have installed several tents inside the VMMC compound, while a truck carrying an armed unit and several patrol cars have taken positions in the perimeter.
“We have been instructed to maintain heightened security because of the reported ‘Oplan’ (murder plot) against the former President,” said a police official who asked not to be identified for lack of clearance to speak on security measures.
Also on Monday, the VMMC director said Arroyo would be served the same food given to ordinary hospital patients, pending any new arrangement approved by the court concerning her meals.
Any plan by the Arroyo camp to bring in chefs should be first be covered by a court order, Dr. Nona Legaspi said in a briefing.
Asked how the hospital would make sure Arroyo’s food would be poison-free, Legaspi replied: “It’s patient’s food coming from our kitchen.”
“As early as Saturday, (the presidential suite) was ready for occupancy,” she told reporters. The statement was apparently contrary to Bartolome’s description of the place and what Arroyo’s lawyers told the court earlier in the day.
Legaspi said the hospital would make sure Arroyo would have a comfortable stay but that she would not receive special treatment.
“As an ordinary patient, we will treat her as an ordinary patient,” she said.
The VMMC director also assured the former President that the suite would have a 24-hour water supply and a pest control system.