Aquino ally pushes for Arroyo residence as ‘sub-jail’

Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ JOAN BONDOC

MANILA, Philippines–An administration ally is hoping to have the posh La Vista subdivision residence of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared as a state-run jail facility under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said he had filed a resolution declaring Arroyo’s home a “sub-jail” because the Sandiganbayan was taking too long deciding on the House of Representatives’ appeal to have the Pampanga congresswoman placed under house arrest for humanitarian reasons.

Rodriguez said Arroyo deserved special treatment because she is a former president, a woman and “she is very, very sick.”

“We have seen the situation, the medical situation of our former president. She still has a spine problem, she cannot eat very well. She is getting thinner. She has other ailments. Being at home is the therapy that would be needed for her to be restored to good health,” Rodriguez said in a radio interview.

He said the law allowed for a “softening” of penalties for humanitarian reasons.

Arroyo has a pending petition in the Sandiganbayan for detention not in La Vista but in her home in Lubao, Pampanga.

Rodriguez said House Resolution No. 5686 declaring Arroyo’s house a sub-jail was patterned after Pakistan’s grant of the same accommodation to former military dictator Pervez Musharraf due to threats from the Taliban.

Arroyo has been in detention at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City since October 2012. She has been charged with plunder for allegedly conspiring in the misuse of P366 million in Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office funds.–Gil C.Cabacungan

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