Detention cell being spruced up for possible Arroyo occupancy

MANILA, Philippines—A fresh coat of paint is among the final touches being applied to the walls of a spruced up detention cell at the Southern Police District headquarters in anticipation of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s probable detention there, an official said Saturday.

It is up to the Pasay City Regional Court’s Branch 112 to determin if she should be detained there. Judge Jesus Mupas has given both the prosecution and defense until Tuesday to formalize the  proposals they made during Friday’s hearing on where Arroyo, 64, should be held, the clerk of court explained.

The defense is asking that Arroyo, who faces a charge of electoral sabotage, be held under house arrest while the prosecution has proposed shat she be jailed at the SPD headquarters.

Earlier this week, Senior Supt. James Bucayu, the SPD deputy director for administration and officer in charge, ordered the conversion of the district public information office and media lounge into a detention cell for Arroyo, who is now a Pampanga congressional representative, according to Chief Insp. Jenny Tecson.

Tecson, the SPD spokesperson, said her staff moved around some furniture to accommodate a modest cot for Arroyo. The district logistics office was also set to place a wooden divider to give the former President some privacy and separate the cell’s receiving area for visitors from the inmate’s sleeping area.

Aside from the last-minute arrangements, the room was pretty much ready for occupancy, the official said. It has running water in the kitchen area and the toilet.

Outside the room is the district grandstand where police-organized events are held.

During Friday’s hearing, prosecutors moved to place Arroyo at a government detention facility “preferably the SPD headquarters” in light of the defense’s admission she was “medically fit” to leave the hospital.

Lead defense counsel Jose Flaminiano jumped the gun on the prosecution in an apparent legal maneuver to prevent his client’s doctors from disclosing her true medical condition in open court.

The court earlier summoned Arroyo’s doctors—attending physician Juliet Gopez-Cervantes, orthopedic surgeon Mario Ver and endocrinologist Roberto Miraso—testify on her current state of health.

After Judge Mupas insisted on the testimony of the doctors, Ver disclosed in open court that Arroyo was fit to be discharged from the hospital. Her rehabilitation could be done as an “outpatient,” the doctor added.

Prior to Ver taking the stand, Mupas called for a recess as arguments on the necessity of the doctors’ testimony intensified. Defense lawyers were adamant that any disclosure pertaining to Arroyo’s health was immaterial to the case after they withdrew a request to have Arroyo remain under hospital arrest.

They claimed that having the doctors testify on Arroyo’s medical condition was a violation of  doctor-patient confidentiality and she was no longer president and her health was therefore no longer a question of public interest.

Lead prosecutor Maria Juana Valeza pitched for the accused’s detention at a government hospital, a proposal she withdrew after Arroyo’s lawyers admitted that their client was well. She then moved to have Arroyo detained “preferably at the SPD.”

Flaminiano insisted that his client be held under house arrest but he did not specify in which of Arroyo’s houses—in Metro Manila and Pampanga— she should be confined.

Clerk of court Joel Pelicano said the court may conduct an inspection of the SPD detention cell possibly “on Monday” to look into security and other arrangements.

He told reporters on Friday that Judge Mupas may personally make the visit or ask a court staffer to do the inspection for him. He clarified that this did not mean the judge was in favor of Arroyo’s detention at the SPD but simply a matter of proper procedure.

He discounted any immediate transfer from St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City to the SPD headquarters in Fort Bonifacio because the court would still have to weigh the arguments of both the  prosecution and defense panels.

After the Tuesday deadline, both panels would be given time to comment on their respective proposals, Pelicano explained.