Set as home page
01/28/2012
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile is opposed to the government’s idea of transferring detained former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo to a regular detention facility after she fully recovers from her current medical condition.
“Whatever you may say against her, we must treat her with a certain degree of civility and dignity, being a former president of the country. If she’s going to be convicted, then punish her. But before that, given the fact she has handled the country for nine years, we have to be very careful (in handling her case),” he said.
The Senate chief was reacting to reports on the motion filed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) before the Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) seeking to transfer Arroyo from the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City where she is currently under hospital detention
to a regular jail if a medical examination would show that she was already fit enough.
The Pampanga lawmaker, it said, should not be viewed by the public as being given preferential treatment.
According to the poll body, concern for Arroyo’s health was the reason the Comelec allowed such “special facilities” for her.
But the upper chamber chief said it cannot be helped but accept the fact that even in jail, detainees are treated differently.
In the case of Arroyo, there can be a number of opposing views but one cannot deny the fact that a former president should be accorded treatment befitting her.
Enrile cited the case of former President Joseph Estrada, who was initially detained in Camp Crame and transferred to another camp in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
He was later transferred to the VMMC and allowed to stay under heavy guard in his rest house in Tanay, Rizal which was near another military camp.
“That was in in consideration of fact that Erap (Estrada) was a president of the country,” he said.
The camp of the former president said it will “avail of all available legal course” to oppose the Comelec motion but maintained that it is ready to abide by the judge’s ruling.
Last November, Pasay Judge Jesus Mupas ordered Arroyo’s arrest over charges of electoral sabotage, a non-bailable offense, where she stands accused of alleged massive fraud during 2007 mid-term elections.