Palace doesn’t believe Gloria Arroyo has ‘life-threatening’ ailment

Malacañang does not believe that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has a “life-threatening” ailment, according to President Benigno Aquino III’s spokesperson Edwin Lacierda.

The “best persons” to testify on Arroyo’s true medical condition are not her spokespersons but her doctors, and before not only the Supreme Court but also the Pasay City court hearing the electoral sabotage case filed against her, Lacierda told reporters on Wednesday.

Without the testimony of Arroyo’s doctors, the Supreme Court and the Pasay court will have no basis for their respective decisions, he said.

Lacierda said the Palace’s “position” was that Arroyo, now a Pampanga representative, “has no life-threatening condition.”

“If you have a life-threatening condition, why will you attend the Clinton Global Initiative?” he said, adding that this was why the Palace initially turned down Arroyo’s request for travel abroad.

Arroyo is in fact in “better spirits” after a stream of visitors—past and present allies in the House of Representatives and former Cabinet members—kept her company in her hospital suite at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City in the past few days.

Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said the presence of familiar faces had had a “positive effect” on the Pampanga lawmaker as she was chatty and buoyant when he paid her a visit on Monday night.

“She was trying to speak to all of us even if she was lying flat on her back on doctors’ orders. She was upbeat throughout. She even ate some vegetables (broccoli) while we were there,” Suarez told the Inquirer.

Said House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman, who was among the visitors: “This is an observation. She wasn’t emotional. Even at the airport [on Nov. 15], you’ll notice that she didn’t even utter a word, but you could see in her face that she was really disgusted and disappointed by the cruelty and indignity she received.”