Gloria back in neck brace, back in Congress
After almost four years of holding office while in hospital detention, Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was back in the House of Representatives on Monday morning ready for the opening of the 17th Congress.
The former President, fresh from detention at the Veteran’s Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) for plunder, joined fellow lawmakers for breakfast.
READ: Arroyo back to work in Congress for Duterte’s SONA
Wearing a polo barong, the reelected Pampanga congresswoman arrived at about 8:45 a.m. at the South Wing annex of the House.
Arroyo was again seen wearing a neck brace, due to a spine disorder — the reason the court allowed her hospital detention.
Media interviews after she was released from detention showed her free of a neck brace.
She later joined other representatives for the opening of Congress at 10 a.m. when the voting for the next Speaker would take place.
Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo moves about in the House of Representatives plenary before the election of the next Speaker of the 17th Congress. MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB / INQUIRER.NET
The breakfast was sponsored by presumptive Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez of the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), the emerging party of power in the lower house.
Before she headed for the plenary hall, Arroyo wore her neck brace as she told reporters she felt well enough to attend the opening of Congress.
“Okay,” she said, laughing, when asked how she was feeling now that she was back in Congress.
The former President won a seat in the House while in detention for the alleged misuse of P366 million in Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office intelligence funds from 2008 to 2010.
She held office at the VMMC for the duration of the last Congress.
Arroyo walked free at 6:30 p.m. Friday after the Supreme Court dismissed her plunder case. The High Court ruled that her approval of the P366 million intelligence fund releases was only ministerial and did not constitute an “overt act” to commit plunder./rga
READ: SC: Arroyo OK on fund release not overt act of plunder
Former president now Pampanga representative Gloria Arroyo laughs as reporters ask how she feels going back at the House of Representatives after being in hospital detention for four years. MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB / INQUIRER.NET
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