Pasay court sets Friday hearing on GMA transfer

MANILA, Philippines - The Pasay City regional trial court (RTC) will hear on Friday the motion filed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) seeking the transfer of former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from the Veterans Medical Memorial Center (VMMC) in Quezon City to a regular jail.

Felda Domingo, spokesperson for Pasay RTC Branch 112, said that lawyers of the former president are expected to file their comment on Comelec’s motion before the Friday hearing.

“The defense lawyers could make an oral motion opposing the transfer of their client during the hearing,” she said.

Domingo said the court had also ordered the attending physician of Arroyo to submit a medical report and recommendation if the former president is already fit to be discharged from the hospital and be detained at a regular jail in Metro Manila.

Pasay Judge Jesus Mupas has set on Feb. 20 the arraignment of Arroyo and her co-accused former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., and former Maguindanao election officer Lintang Bedol for the electoral sabotage charges filed against them.

The charges were in connection with the alleged rigging of the senatorial elections in Maguindanao in the 2007 polls.

Mupas had earlier junked the motion to recall the arrest warrant issued against Arroyo.

The dismissal of the motion had paved the way for the start of the trial of the case.

The court will also resolve the pending motions filed by Ampatuan and Bedol after the arraignment of the accused.

Ampatuan is detained at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Bicutan, Taguig while Bedol is currently serving his six-month jail term at the Philippine National Police Detention Center at Camp Crame in Quezon City after he was cited for contempt.

Bedol had completed on Jan. 19 his six-month sentence for indirect contempt that the Comelec had found him guilty of back in 2007 for his failure to heed summons to testify in an inquiry into poll fraud in Maguindanao that year.

He only served his sentence beginning last year after he finally came out of hiding.

Bedol will remain detained at Camp Crame pending the resolution of the electoral sabotage charges filed against him, Arroyo, and Ampatuan.

Defense lawyer Jose Flaminiano filed a motion seeking house arrest for Arroyo.

Vice President Jejomar Binay said he is not in favor of the transfer of Arroyo to a regular jail to be detained with other ordinary criminals.

Binay said Arroyo should be treated fairly as a former president. – With Ric Sapnu