Sec. Herminio Coloma. PHOTO BY LYN RILLON
MANILA, Philippines—Even the bitterest of enemies can wish each other well this Yuletide season.
In a report from the Presidential Communications Operations Office, Herminio Coloma Jr. said that the Malacañang Palace wished detained former president and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo the happiest of holidays.
“We all hope for peace and goodwill to reign during the Christmas season,” Coloma said after the Sandiganbayan allowed Arroyo to celebrate the holidays with her family.
The graft court allowed the Arroyo family to stay at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center beyond 9 p.m. on Christmas and New Year’s Eves, just in time for the traditional Filipino dinners of Noche Buena and Media Noche.
Arroyo is under hospital arrest at the VMMC in Quezon City where she faces charges of electoral sabotage and plunder.
“We welcome the graft court’s decision to allow the former president to spend Christmas and New Year with her family,” Coloma said.
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