Church official backs hospital or house arrest for Arroyo

MANILA, Philippines—An official of the Catholic Church’s prison ministry has supported the idea of allowing former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to be detained in a hospital or her own home, due to her ailments.

Catholic Bishops’ Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care’s executive secretary Rodolfo Diamante said on Sunday the commission would not object to a hospital or a house arrest for Arroyo, who was detained following an arrest warrant issued against her on Friday by a Pasay City regional trial court.

“For humanitarian reasons, it should be provided,” Diamante told reporters on Sunday, citing the bad conditions prisoners suffer under the current jail system. “They can’t confine her in our jails,” he added.

Diamante also pointed to Arroyo’s poor condition, not her being a “very important person,” as the main reason why the former president should be allowed to be placed under either a hospital or house arrest.

“Health-wise… that should be the number one consideration,” said Diamante.

But in the same breath, the official stressed that the same treatment must also be accorded to inmates with medical conditions languishing in cramped detention cells with no or deficient health facilities.

“There are many prisoners who have medical conditions… it should be the same treatment to all prisoners with the same condition,” said Diamante.

The CBCP Commission on Prison Pastoral Care is advocating for restorative justice, which includes better conditions in the country’s jail facilities and humane treatment for prisoners, especially the sick and elderly.

Amid questions whether Arroyo should be allowed to leave the country to seek medical treatment abroad for her rare bone disease, the Commission on Elections and the Department of Justice filed a case of electoral sabotage against her on Friday before the Pasay City Regional Trial Court, which issued a warrant of arrest against Arroyo five hours later.

The filing immediately came after the Comelec en banc voted 5-2 in approving a recommendation of the joint panel that looked into the alleged massive fraud during the 2007 elections.

Several witnesses accused the former president of supposedly masterminding the cheating.

Arroyo was booked on Saturday at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City, where she was confined since she and husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, attempted to leave the country, but was barred by immigration officials from doing so, on orders of the Department of Justice, on Tuesday.