Pampanga bishop visits Gloria Arroyo

MANILA, Philippines—Embattled former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was visited by a prelate from her home province at a Quezon City hospital on Saturday, Christmas Eve.

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

The bishop was among those who publicly supported Arroyo in her congressional bid as Pampanga representative 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.

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

Earlier this week, a Pasay City court hearing the electoral sabotage charges against her denied Arroyo’s appeal for a Christmas furlough.

She had wanted to spend the holidays at home but the court ruled that she cannot go out of the hospital’s premises to spend Christmas and New Year at her home in La Vista subdivision.

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 next year.

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