Pampanga bishop visits Arroyo

MANILA, Philippines—Embattled former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo received a visit from the prelate from her home province on the eve of Christmas.

According to an informant, Pampanga Bishop Paciano Aniceto saw the ailing lawmaker at the presidential suite of the Veterans Memorial Medical Center on Saturday morning.

The bishop was among those who publicly supported Arroyo when she ran for Congress representing Pampaga’s second district after her nine-year term as President ended.

The source, who requested anonymity for lack of authority to speak to media, said Aniceto was accompanied by another priest, a monsignor.

Arroyo was set to hear Christmas Eve Mass at 9 p.m. Saturday at a nearby chapel.

Earlier this week, a Pasay City court hearing the electoral sabotage charges against her junked Arroyo’s appeal for a Christmas furlough to spend the holidays at her La Vista home.

She had wanted to spend the holidays at home but the court ruled that she could go out of the hospital’s premises. The court, however, allowed Arroyo to have her family over from December 24 until noon of December 26 and from December 31 until noon of January 2.

As of early Saturday afternoon, none of Arroyo’s immediate family had arrived at the VMMC, the source said.

She has been staying at the government facility for two weeks now following her transfer from the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City on orders of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court.