GMA unlikely to campaign during b-day celebration

SAN FERNANDO, Philippines – Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will celebrate her 66th birthday on April 5 with a mass at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) where she is detained for a plunder case, but her allies doubt if she would be able to campaign for re-election.

“I still don’t know whether she has asked permission from the court to allow her to visit her district to campaign,” said her close ally Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo, who is slated to attend the former president’s birthday mass.

Earlier, Arroyo’s camp said that she was not expected to campaign in the second district of Pampanga due to health considerations.

She was last seen distributing relief packs to flood victims in Lubao, Pampanga in August 2012.

Only recently, the former leader and her son, Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado Arroyo, were charged with plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with two aborted infrastructure projects in Camarines Sur reportedly costing P676 million.

Mrs. Arroyo is currently detained at the VMMC for a separate plunder case in connection with the alleged misuse of P366 million of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office confidential intelligence funds during her presidency.

The court allowed her to stay at the VMMC because of her degenerative bone disease which, despite surgery, caused more health problems after her initial arrest in July 2011 for a separate electoral fraud case.