GMA undergoes urinary system checkup

MANILA, Philippines - The Sandiganbayan allowed former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to undergo a urinary system-related checkup at the St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) in Quezon City yesterday.

Her lawyer Modesto Ticman Jr. said Arroyo needs to be subjected to a procedure called Urodynamic Testing (UDT), during which doctors check how well the bladder, sphincters, and urethra are storing and releasing urine.

“As early as the first week of April, she has had difficulty urinating and according to the doctor, there is bleeding,” he told The STAR.

The Sandiganbayan First Division, after a hearing yesterday morning, granted Arroyo’s motion filed Wednesday with minimal opposition from the prosecution.

Lawyers from the Office of the Ombudsman questioned why the UDT had to be conducted at SLMC when the National Kidney Institute, which is nearer to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City where the former president is under hospital arrest, offers the same procedure.

Ticman said the Sandiganbayan, however, upheld Arroyo’s right to choose where she should undergo the checkup.

Arroyo, 67, is detained at the VMMC for allegedly plundering funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

Ticman said the VMMC actually has a UDT facility but it is not yet operational. – With Paolo Romero, Reinir Padua