The camp of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Thursday cried foul after she was dragged into the dispute between Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Antonio Trillanes IV over a bill creating a new province in Camarines.
Trillanes alleged that Enrile had received a phone call from Arroyo and was instructed to expedite the measure to the point of “bullying” other senators into supporting it.
“We are deeply saddened that her name is being dragged again into another controversy and this time being wrongly used to sow disrespect to a venerable and independent institution like the Senate,” Arroyo’s spokesperson Elena Bautista-Horn said in a statement.
“She regrets that her name is being used to discredit and malign the name of a much respected official of the land like the Senate President.”
Wellness priority
Horn said Arroyo’s priority was her “wellness and her still precarious health condition.”
The Pampanga representative has resorted to alternative medicine, including stem cell treatment, to address her lingering cervical spine ailment.
Horn said Arroyo was also focused on using “whatever strength is left in serving her district in Pampanga.”
“She chose to focus on her legislative work,” the spokesperson added.
Medical bulletin
Trillanes, a former Navy officer, was involved in at least two coup attempts against then President Arroyo. He was jailed for several years, won a Senate seat while in detention in 2007, and was later released when President Aquino assumed office.
In her official Twitter account, Arroyo provided an update on her medical condition late Thursday afternoon.
“I’ve been taking out my soft collar neck brace (for) longer periods as advised by my doctors even when I was still in Veterans’ (Memorial Medical Center) to avoid atrophy,” she said.
“But my CT scan showed my cervical spine muscles have atrophied, so I have taken my neck brace out for even longer periods.”
She added: “But now I’ve started to feel numb in the surgical area and shooting pain in the shoulder near the neck, not to mention the old chronic pain that has to be therapied (three) times a week. So I’m back to longer periods with the neck brace.”
Originally posted at 04:20 pm | Thursday, September 20, 2012