Palace: Up to court to send Arroyo home

AS MANILA Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada marked his 78th birthday Sunday, Malacañang wished him well but said it was powerless to grant his wish—to release his successor, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, from hospital detention.

According to Presidential Communication Operations Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., Estrada’s birthday wish was not for President Aquino to grant but for state prosecutors to ponder on as part of the plunder case against Arroyo.

“We are one with those wishing former President and Mayor Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada on his birthday today and our reply is: It’s proper to let the court decide on this. It is the duty of government lawyers or prosecutors of the DOJ (Department of Justice) to decide on this issue if a petition will be filed in court,” Coloma said in an interview on a government-run radio station.

A day before his birthday, April 19, Estrada told reporters that his number one birthday wish was for Aquino to grant house arrest to Arroyo.

“Her physical condition is deteriorating. As a woman, we should give her compassion. We should give her a little comfort,” he said.

Estrada also said that Arroyo, who had been operated on several times for a spine ailment, was losing weight and weakening.

Arroyo succeeded Estrada whose six-year term was cut short in 2001 by the second People Power revolution. Charged with plunder, Estrada was tried by the Sandiganbayan and convicted in September 2007. He was given a jail term of up to 40 years but received a pardon from Arroyo just a month later.

Last March, Arroyo’s peers in the House of Representatives filed a resolution urging the Sandiganbayan to grant house arrest to the Pampanga congresswoman for humanitarian reasons.

Arroyo has been detained at the Veterans Medical Memorial Center since October 2012 after she was charged with plunder for the alleged misuse of P366-million worth of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office funds.

Earlier this month, her lawyers asked the court to allow her to be detained at her house in La Vista, Quezon City, arguing that she would recuperate faster in the company of her family.

The petition was filed after the Sandiganbayan denied her motion to junk the case of plunder—a nonbailable offense—against her.