GMA seeks relaxation of strict visitation rules

MANILA, Philippines - Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is asking the Sandiganbayan to order the Police Security and Protection Group (PSPG) to relax the strict visitation rules at her place of detention in the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC)  during the Christmas and New Year holidays. 

In an urgent motion filed on Dec. 13, the Pampanga lawmaker asked the anti-graft court’s First Division for judicial intervention in the “spirit of joy, hope, peace, love compassion and goodwill during the Yuletide season.”

She wants to spend Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day with her family, she added.

Arroyo’s visitors at the VMMC have been ordered to leave by 9:30 p.m., in-cluding her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo.

Her lawyer, Maria Rosario   del Rosario, said Arroyo needs spousal and family support to help her recuperate after three surgeries to correct her problematic spine.

“With the denial by the PSPG of accused GMA’s appeal (she) is left with no other plain, speedy and adequate remedy to make come true her fervent wish that she, like all members of the closely-knit Filipino families, be able to spend quality time with members of her family, except recourse to this Honorable Court,” read her motion.