Arroyo may be flown by chopper to VMMC—Robredo

MANILA, Philippines—There’s a good chance that former president and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will be airlifted from St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said there was a “50-50 percent chance” that the authorities might decide to transfer Arroyo via helicopter, considering security risks and logistics issues.

“It will be decided by the Philippine National Police. But it will depend on our assessment of the situation tomorrow,” he said in a phone interview. Robredo exercises supervisory powers over the police.

Robredo said the advantages of transporting Arroyo by helicopter included bypassing the Friday rush hour traffic and avoiding the security risks involved in a convoy, such as possible fracas with protesters and demonstrators in the streets.

But definitely, he said, Arroyo would not be transported in any of the two secondhand choppers purportedly owned by her husband, Jose Miguel, before these were sold as brand new to the PNP in 2009 for.

Arroyo’s husband and several former PNP officials, including then Director General Jesus Versoza, are facing graft charges over the alleged anomaly.

“No, we will only use the right helicopter,” Robredo said. Aside from the two choppers, the PNP has only two other operational helicopters.

Robredo said it was not yet definite when the transfer would take place but most likely “after 8 a.m.”

He said Arroyo, like her predecessor, deposed president Joseph Estrada, who also previously stayed at VMMC in connection with plunder charges in 2002, would not be handcuffed on the way to Quezon City.

“(It’s) part of the court order to accord (Arroyo) respect,” he said.