Gov’t to allow Arroyo seek treatment abroad; St. Luke’s checkup next week

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Talk about the apparent plan of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to seek medical treatment abroad has been circulating even before she underwent her third neck surgery in August, which her doctors described as successful.

Speaking Thursday with reporters, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Arroyo might be allowed to seek medical treatment abroad despite her inclusion in the Bureau of Immigration’s watch list.

“As already articulated by some personalities, including some senators, at the very least, for humanitarian considerations, we might favorably consider it,” De Lima said when asked if she would grant Arroyo’s possible request to leave the country.

Arroyo is the subject of five plunder suits filed in the Department of Justice. On August 8, De Lima put her on the watch list.

But she can still file an application stating her request to be allowed to travel abroad.

“[After the] proper application, we will seriously consider that. The proper procedure needs to be complied with,” De Lima said.

But Arroyo will not be leaving for abroad immediately because she is due for a medical checkup next week at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City.

The visit to the hospital is part of follow-up checkups scheduled after the series of surgeries on Arroyo’s neck starting in July, Marilen Lagniton, the hospital’s vice president for customer affairs, said Thursday.

Lagniton refused to comment on Arroyo’s purported plan to travel to Germany to seek medical treatment, but said: “She has been suffering from the same disease for some time now.”

She told the Philippine Daily Inquirer to reserve questions concerning Arroyo’s health for next week, saying her doctors were expected to announce their findings after the checkup. But she could not say exactly when Arroyo’s next visit to St. Luke’s would be.

Asked if Arroyo’s doctors had been able to address her “hypoparathyroidism,” an endocrine disorder that decreases the level of the parathyroid hormone and affects a patient’s bone structure, Lagniton answered defensively: “Of course it has been addressed.”

Travel requests unused

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said Arroyo, now a Pampanga representative, had not been able to use her three travel requests, including one for medical treatment in Germany.

But Belmonte is willing to approve any new request from her, he said at a press conference Thursday.

Belmonte said Arroyo did not use the travel authority dated September 18-27 to attend the Clinton Global Initiative in New York; another dated September 28-October 6 to seek medical treatment in Munich; and yet another dated October 10-11 to participate in the regional consultation of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty in Geneva.

He said Arroyo’s medical condition could be the reason.

The Speaker said there was “absolutely no reason” to deny any travel request from Arroyo because she was not a flight risk.

Confident of return

“I’m confident she’s coming back because if you don’t come back, that means you’re guilty,” he said.

Belmonte said that Arroyo’s office staff asked him recently if the congresswoman could bring a nurse with her, and that he answered in the affirmative.

“I want to be as helpful as I can. We’re talking about life here. So I told them, ‘Put it in writing.’ They know very well that they can go for medical or whatever [purposes] anywhere,” he said.

Belmonte said he was convinced that Arroyo was ill although he had not seen her lately because of her condition.

He said there was no need to appoint a caretaker for Arroyo’s second district in Pampanga in her absence because other lawmakers had also been absent from House sessions even much longer.

“Others here are not always present,” he said with a laugh, referring to the habitual absentees.

‘Like a robot’

On Wednesday, Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, said she was suffering from hypoparathyroidism and needed treatment abroad although it was not life-threatening.

In the City of San Fernando in Pampanga, a close friend of Arroyo’s described her as “like a robot” after paying her a visit in her house in La Vista, Quezon City.

The friend, who asked not to be identified for this report because the visit was a personal one, said Arroyo had many “gadgets” attached to her body but did not appear to be in pain.

“She was thin. [But] she could walk and she was smiling,” the friend said.

Arroyo’s half-sister, Cielo Macapagal-Salgado, said she was asking for prayers for the former President’s recovery, and for her critics and supporters alike to give her space.

“I know it’s going to take some time [for her to get well],” said Salgado, a former vice governor of Pampanga.

Asked if she wanted her younger sister to go abroad for stem cell treatment, she said: “It’s better to just pray for her and give her space.”

Salgado said she last saw Arroyo after the latter’s third surgery.

So thin

“I’m waiting for her to let me know I can visit, although she sent a text message to say thanks for the Masses and prayers,” Salgado said.

Pampanga Governor Lilia Pineda, a close Arroyo ally, said the former President was “not 100 percent well,” and described her as “payat na payat (so thin)” when she visited last month.

Angeles Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan, a former official of Arroyo’s party, Lakas-Kampi, said only Arroyo and her doctors should know whether it was best for her to undergo treatment in Germany, where her husband reported finding experts in stem cell therapy.

“Maybe a third or even a fourth opinion [from a medical expert] is what she needs,” Pamintuan said.

Rare genetic makeup

Dr. Mario Ver, Arroyo’s main orthopedic surgeon, said in an earlier press briefing that he had been conservatively treating his patient for the past eight years. He said her condition had deteriorated over the years.

Arroyo’s main attending physician, Dr. Juliet Cervantes, added that the former President’s genetic makeup was very rare.

The first surgery was performed on July 29 on Arroyo, where titanium implants and bone substitutes were used to rebuild her spine.

She had to undergo “revision” surgery on August 10 after it was found that the titanium implants connecting four levels of her spine had been dislodged by what her doctors initially thought was an infection.

A third operation was performed on August 24, after her doctors discovered that the implants had been dislodged because of an “inherent bone problem.”

The doctors later said the problem was traced to Arroyo’s poor bone quality caused by hypoparathyroidism. With reports from Marlon Ramos in Manila; Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon

Originally posted at 06:43 pm | Thursday, October 13, 2011