Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Former President Gloria Arroyo will have to stay in the hospital for now after the Sandiganbayan asked her lawyers to submit pictures of the two houses she wants to be detained in as she stands trial for plunder.
The antigraft court First Division set a hearing on Thursday after both parties submitted their opposition and replies to the defense panel’s motion to modify Arroyo’s custodial arrangement to allow her to be under house arrest.
Arroyo’s lawyers said her continued detention in the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) only worsened her health and a change in environment would help her recover from her degenerative bone disease.
READ: Arroyo now wants ‘home’ arrest in Pampanga
For lack of evidence, the court asked Atty. Laurence Arroyo to submit pictures of the former President’s houses in La Vista, Quezon City, and in Lubao, Pampanga. Arroyo is an incumbent Pampanga representative.
“The court may conduct an ocular inspection on these properties,” Division chairman Associate Justice Efren Dela Cruz said.
The court also asked for the names of members in the homeowners association, and Arroyo’s latest medical bulletin from her government doctors on her condition.
The court asked the defense to submit pictures of her residences to show if the former president will be secured under house arrest either in La Vista or in her hometown Lubao, Pampanga.
Asked if her La Vista residence is isolated, Atty. Arroyo admitted that the 1,000-2,000-square meter property is only separated by a wall from the row of houses in the lush subdivision.
Division chairman Associate Justice Efren Dela Cruz laughed and told the defense lawyers: “And yet you suggested that (in your motion)?”
Arroyo said the other alternative is the 500-square meter Lubao residence which is just 200 meters from the nearest police station.
But the prosecution opposed to the motion, saying the police personnel in Pampanga is undermanned and that the police may have other matters to attend to.
The court noted too that Arroyo’s motion for house arrest cited earlier medical bulletins submitted as evidence, the latest dated at June 2014.
When asked by the court if they oppose the motion on the basis of Arroyo’s worsening condition, the prosecution said it could not give a just opposition because the defense did not submit the latest medical bulletin on her condition.
Atty. Arroyo said the accused will undergo a medical check-up Wednesday for the court to be furnished a copy of the latest medical bulletin.
Associate Justice Dela Cruz asked the defense to submit names of the homeowners association so that the residents would be made to comment about Arroyo’s house arrest in the vicinity.
“If the neighborhood opposes, we can’t do anything about it. The security of Arroyo will be compromised if many people are staying around the property,” Dela Cruz said.
Atty. Arroyo argued that Arroyo was kept safe in La Vista when she was granted a four-day Christmas furlough in 2014 following the death of her then one-year-old grandson Jugo.
READ: Arroyo allowed to attend grandson’s wake
Associate Justice Rodolfo Ponferrada asked if Arroyo’s health improved during the four-day furlough, to which Atty. Arroyo said “there was a glow in Mrs. Arroyo’s face.”
“It must be the spiritual aspect of a human being,” Arroyo’s lawyer told the court.
Atty. Arroyo also told the court Mrs. Arroyo is willing to be placed under the stringent restrictions similar to the house arrest of former President (now Manila mayor) Joseph Estrada, which was used as the precedent for Arroyo’s motion.
The Sandiganbayan had allowed Estrada house arrest in his rest house in Rizal as he faced plunder charges over illegal gambling. Estrada was convicted by the court but later pardoned by Arroyo.
Arroyo said these restrictions included police control over communication devices and a ban on media interviews unless the court permits it, among others.
But Arroyo’s lawyer said he will oppose turning over Arroyo’s houses to government. The prosecutors said they will still oppose the house arrest even when the houses were government properties.
The court gave Atty. Arroyo 15 days to submit the additional evidence, and the prosecution another 15 days thereafter to submit reply, before the court submits the motion for resolution.
Arroyo filed the motion for house arrest a day after the antigraft court’s first division denied her demurrer of evidence, a move to dismiss the supposedly weak evidence against her and dismiss the case.
Mrs. Arroyo, 68, is under hospital detention due to plunder for allegedly using P366 million in intelligence funds for the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) from 2008 to 2010 for personal gain.
The former president is confined at the VMMC as she claimed to be suffering from cervical spondylosis, a degenerative disease of the bones and cartilage of the neck.
Arroyo had also complained of “generalized body weakness, persistent pain over the nuchal and left shoulder with numbness of both hands and frequent episodes of choking,” according to the VMMC. IDL