Arroyo won’t convert residence to gov’t property for house arrest

The defense lawyer of former President now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo does not want to transfer to government her residences for the court to allow her house arrest.

During the Sandiganbayan First Division hearing on Arroyo’s motion to modify custodial arrangement on Thursday, the prosecutors raised that Arroyo would have to convert to government property her houses in La Vista, Quezon city and in Lubao, Pampanga, where she wanted to be placed under house arrest.

The prosecutors said this was the case of another former President, now Manila mayor Joseph Estrada, who was detained in his rest house in Tanay, Rizal, near Camp Capinpin during his plunder trial over “jueteng” (illegal numbers game) money.

Estrada was later convicted but pardoned by the incumbent President Arroyo herself.

The prosecutors led by Atty. Julieta Zinnia Niduaza maintained the panel would still oppose Arroyo’s house arrest even with government turnover.

Arroyo’s lawyer Atty. Laurence Arroyo (no relation) said he will oppose converting to government properties Arroyo’s houses.

The court also corrected the prosecutors and said Estrada’s rest house was not turned over to the government for his house arrest.

“Ang sinabi namin kanina is that we are not willing to transfer ownership. And the court immediately said na hindi naman talaga requirement yung transfer of ownership. The only requirement is that our law enforcers have control over the premises. That’s understandable since you want to control the movement of President Arroyo,” Atty. Arroyo told reporters after the hearing.

He told the court Arroyo would be willing to be placed under the stringent restrictions similar to the Estrada’s house arrest, which was used as the precedent for Arroyo’s motion.

Lawyer Arroyo said these restrictions included police control over communication devices and a ban on media interviews unless the court permits it, among others.

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.

Her lawyers cited her deteriorating condition in the hospital and that a change in environment would help her recover.

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 Veterans Memorial Medical Center (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.