SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines – Hundreds trooped to the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City and the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City to give beleaguered Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo support.
Local officials led supporters who gathered at the two hospitals, most of them from Candaba, Angeles City and from Arroyo’s second congressional district.
Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan kept the former leader’s loyalists abreast of developments on Arroyo’s transfer to the VMMC.
Pamintuan said the authorities apparently do not know how to carry out the transfer of Arroyo.
“Transferring her to a public hospital is the only remaining option by the authorities,” he said.
Pamintuan said Arroyo should not be detained like former President Joseph Estrada until she has been found guilty.
He said the accusations that Arroyo manipulated the 2007 elections are unfounded.
“Is a campaign call for 12-0 for senators a crime?” he asked.
Even as Pamintuan led supporters at the VMMC, militant groups showed up demanding the former president should be detained like a common criminal.
When protesters from the group Gabriela arrived at past 9 a.m., they chanted, “Ikulong! Ikulong! (jail her!)”
In response, Arroyo’s supporters shouted back, “Ilabas (free her)!”
Television news feeds showed a group of protesters throwing tomatoes and rotten vegetables at every ambulance along North Avenue going to the VMMC, apparently thinking that Arroyo was inside.
A decoy convoy of luxury vehicles and police cars left St. Luke’s to test the traffic and security situation along the route.
The decoy convoy was mistakenly cheered and jeered by supporters and militants.
But as the convoy managed to get inside the sprawling VMMC compound, Arroyo’s supporters also started leaving the area.
When news spread that the convoy that arrived at VMMC did not carry the embattled former president, the supporters came back.
Militants were protesting what they said was the special treatment being accorded to the former president.
They even questioned the government’s shouldering the hospital expenses for Arroyo while at VMMC.
Policemen from the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) mediated and prevented a violent confrontation between the two groups.
A known Arroyo critic, former Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, said imposing justice on Arroyo should not include cruelty.
“Even justice respects human dignity. Justice, too, bows to human rights such as those to life and liberty,” he said.
Congressmen also demanded authorities to ease up on Arroyo, renewing their call to allow the former president use of her mobile phone and computer so she can continue her duties as a lawmaker.
House Majority Leader and Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales II stressed that Arroyo would anyway still remain in detention under close guard at VMMC even if she uses communication equipment.
“She (Arroyo) remains as an elected lawmaker and she opted not to appoint some kind of officer-in-charge or caretaker, which means that she intends to continue exercising her duties and work,” Gonzales said.
“It (use of telephone and computer) won’t affect her detention,” he said.
Gonzales said he does not believe that there would be a violation of the equal protection clause since “she is a class of her own and others are not similarly situated.”
“Her case is unique and she can still work,” Gonzales said, citing the case of former Zamboanga del Norte congressman Romeo Jalosjos, who was allowed to maintain a small office in prison even after his conviction for child rape.
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said letting Arroyo use her phone and laptop would allow her to continue to work as a lawmaker.
“She is not only the former president, she is also a sitting member of the House of Representatives. The use of telephones and laptop computer would allow her to serve her constituents, monitor what is happening in Congress and work on her pending legislation,” Rodriguez said.
“I know her to be very hardworking. She has filed many bills,” he said.
Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption party-list Rep. Sherwin Tugna said Arroyo is presumed innocent and “her constituents have the right to be served.”
“She is already under the custody of the government so let us not deprive her constituents of her service,” Tugna said.
Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara said even if Arroyo could not personally visit her district, she would be able to communicate with her constituents and perform her duties as lawmaker with the use of communication equipment.
“It’s alright that we extend her the courtesy as a former president and an elected lawmaker,” Youth Against Corruption and Poverty party-list Rep. Carol Jayne Lopez said.
House Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said there is a distinction on custodial detention pending bail or trial where the accused has all the constitutional rights except movement, as opposed to incarceration after conviction. – With Paolo Romero, Eva Visperas, Reinir Padua