Christmas furlough for Arroyo up to court, not us, says Palace

Secretary Edwin Lacierda INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Malacañang said Sunday it was leaving up to the courts the matter of a Christmas furlough for former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as well as her possible  transfer to a regular jail.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said  the Pasay City Regional Trial Court judge  handling the election sabotage case against Arroyo would be the one to   make those decisions.

“So again, we are hands off here… It’s really based on the discretion of the court,” Lacierda said in an interview over state radio dzRB.

Lacierda declined to even comment on Arroyo’s request to be allowed to go home for Christmas.

He said it should be the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which filed the election sabotage case against the former President, that would a comment on the matter in court.

“The (Comelec) will file whatever observations they have before the court, so let’s wait,” Lacierda said.

Lacierda also shrugged off allegations the Palace had inflicted mental torture on Arroyo, who is currently Pampanga representative in Congress, in its relentless pursuit to charge her.

“How is she (being) tortured mentally? We are going to exact accountability. I don’t know if that’s mental torture,” he said.

“If she’s feeling any pressure, it’s because she has not lived up to the expectations of her as chief executive of the land,” Lacierda said.

The Arroyo camp charged  on Sunday that the detention of the former President was “bordering on political persecution” rather than criminal prosecution.

Deputy Minority Leader Danilo Suarez said Malacañang’s refusal to provide Arroyo with minimal accommodations befitting a member of Congress showed that it was intent on shaming her rather than seeking resolution of the cases against her.

Arroyo’s lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, also complained that she was not allowed to hear a Catholic Mass in the hospital compound Sunday.

Topacio said they made a request with the Philippine National Police for Arroyo to be allowed to leave her hospital suite to attend the religious service  but it was  not acted upon by  Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.

“The chapel is walking distance from her room but Secretary Robredo did not approve the request last Friday,” Topacio said, adding that Robredo told them to get permission from the court.

The minority bloc in the House has formalized its appeal to give Arroyo some leeway in her hospital arrest.

In a letter to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman said that Arroyo had been rendered “incommunicado” after being disallowed access to a cell phone, laptop, computer and radio.

Lagman asked Belmonte to intervene to give Arroyo  access to communication and electronic facilities.

Critics of Arroyo, on the other hand, slammed the government for giving her special treatment. “She should be treated like any other detainee and jailed in a regular prison,” said Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teodoro Casiño.

On the third day of her detention at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, a hospital official said Arroyo had no complaints regarding her medical condition.

“She’s OK, she has no complaints,” the official told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on condition of anonymity.

According to VMMC director Dr. Nona Legaspi, “We will only release the result of the examination conducted by our doctors on Arroyo under a court subpoena.” With reports from Cynthia D. Balana, Nancy C. Carvajal and Jaymee T. Gamil