Arroyo camp renovates bathroom Estrada used

Beige tiles of the main bathroom of the presidential suite at Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City were still being taken out Wednesday to be replaced with new ones to the liking of its new occupant.

The new tenant is none other than former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is under arrest on charges of electoral sabotage.

She is scheduled to be transferred to the government hospital Friday from St. Lukes’s Medical Center in Taguig City on orders of Judge Jesus Mupas of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court, who is hearing the electoral sabotage case.

Except for the blinds, all expenses for minor renovations of the 150-square-meter suite will be shouldered by the Arroyos, Dr. Nona Legaspi, VMMC director, said Wednesday.

“As long as it’s not structural we will allow this. Everything should be removable,” Legaspi said.

Everything in the suite, including the main bathroom, about 9 sq m, should be ready by 6 p.m. Thursday. “It should be ready when the sheriff inspects it,” Legaspi said.

Metal detector

The suite can be compared with a pricey, three-bedroom condominium unit with two toilets and baths. The difference: the VMCC suite has its own, walk-in metal detector and closed-circuit television cameras that the police installed.

In preparation for the transfer, Arroyo’s staff on Tuesday brought in two brown lamp shades, two narra tables, chairs and a water dispenser. When joined, the narra tables  can seat 18 people.

In the large dining room is a long wooden cabinet which can serve as a buffet table. The presidential suite has its own kitchen with cupboards and cabinets.

King-size bed

In the middle of the main room, which is protected by bulletproof windows, is a king-size bed, its plastic cover still intact. It has two side tables, each with a lamp.

Next to the main room, is a smaller room that will serve as a nurses’ station. It is furnished with a new single, regular bed.

The suite, which has parquet floors, boasts a big living room occupied by two long sofas placed near the windows. The sofas were the same ones  ousted President Joseph Estrada used while detained on plunder charges in the same suite.

A source at the hospital, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the Arroyos might also replace the sofas.

Legaspi said the sons of the former President—Ang Galing Pinoy Representative Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo and Camarines Sur Representative Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo—separately talked to their mother, but did not make any request on her behalf.

The suite has no line for cable TV.

Government doctors

The hospital director said VMCC doctors would take over the “medical and health” care of Arroyo upon her arrival at the hospital.

Legaspi said VMCC would just be following the order of Judge Mupas.

“The order we received stated that VMMC address the medical and health concerns of the former President. We will abide by the order of the court,” Legaspi said.

She said the decision to take over the medical care of Arroyo was based on the advice of the hospital legal counsel.

“In the absence of a court order appointing the private doctors, the former President is our responsibility,” she said.

Cell phone banned

Legaspi said the ban on the use of Internet and cell phones in the presidential suite would be enforced.

“It’s clear in the order that access to a cell phone and Internet is prohibited,” she said.

Senior Superintendent Rainer Idio, Quezon City Police District director for operations, said they would require all parties concerned to follow the court’s order.

Asked if they would confiscate the prohibited items, Idio said “we will comply with the court order.”

General Eduardo Oban Jr., chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, has said the military is ready to provide assistance should the Philippine National Police need help in the transfer of Arroyo and the security arrangements at VMMC.

But the PNP has not made a request for assistance. “We think the PNP can very well handle it. The situation is manageable,” said the AFP spokesperson, Colonel Arnulfo Burgos Jr.

No threat

The military’s main spy unit, the Intelligence Service of the AFP, said there was no threat to Arroyo.

“We are in touch with intelligence informants in the field and as far as threats to the life of the former President are concerned, we have not received any such report,” Burgos said.

Days after Arroyo was placed under arrest for allegedly sabotaging the 2007 senatorial elections, her spokespersons claimed there was a plot to kill her under the so-called “Operation: Put the Little Girl to Sleep.”

President Benigno Aquino III dismissed the supposed plot as a “work of fiction.” With a report from Dona Z. Pazzibugan