No spectacle when former President Gloria votes in Pampanga

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—No fanfare will greet former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who has been given permission to leave her hospital detention room, when she casts her vote in Lubao town on May 9.

“There is no scheduled welcome rally. Barangay officials are assisting the police. We were informed that she would not stay long after she cast her vote,” Vice Gov. Dennis Pineda told the Inquirer by telephone on Friday.

Arroyo had not been seen in Pampanga or in the province’s second district since October 2012. She had served the district through her staffers.

The Supreme Court discouraged “fanfare or a caravan” for Arroyo when it allowed her a daylong furlough from the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City from
8 a.m. on May 9 to cast her vote.

Arroyo had been at the VMMC where she was being treated for a rare bone disease in the neck and spine, as the former President awaited trial first in July 2010 for a case of electoral sabotage, and in October 2012, for the alleged misuse of P325 million in intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

In the poll sabotage case, a judge allowed Arroyo to post bail in July 2012 due to insufficient evidence but she remained detained for the PCSO case.

Arroyo, 69, who is running unopposed in her third and final term as congresswoman, will cast her vote at Lubao East Central School in Barangay San Nicolas I.

Emmanuel Ignacio, Central Luzon assistant director of the Commission on Elections, said Arroyo could avail of a special lane dedicated to senior citizens, people with disabilities and detainees for her convenience.

Meanwhile, the final testing and sealing of vote-counting machines (VCMs) in Central Luzon were successful except for seven VCMs in Tarlac and three VCMs in Pampanga, which “failed to initialize,” Ignacio said. Their replacements would be delivered to these precincts on Friday, he said.

In Baguio, two of 252 VCMs sent to the city malfunctioned and had been replaced, said lawyer John Martin, city election supervisor. The damaged VCMs were meant for the villages of Holy Ghost Proper and Andres-Bonifacio-Caguioa-Rimando.

“One of the machines suffered paper jams because it was not dropping the ballot into the bin. The other machine stopped functioning after reading five ballots,” Martin said. Baguio City was allotted 40 back-up VCMs. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon; with a report from Kimberlie Quitasol, Inquirer Northern Luzon