MANILA, Philippines - Rep. Silvestre Bello III of party-list group 1-BAP urged the Sandiganbayan yesterday to give detained former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a Christmas furlough.
“She should be allowed to do bonding with her family during this Christmas season. That could help improve her physical condition, which has deteriorated considerably,” Bello told a news conference.
He said he last saw Arroyo during the wake for her grandson Jorge Alonso Arroyo Bernas in Forbes Park, Makati.
“She was frail and weak,” Bello said.
The anti-graft court had earlier allowed the former leader to leave the Veterans Memorial Medical Center to attend the wake and interment of her grandson.
Bello said he would file a resolution asking the House of Representatives to support his proposed furlough for Arroyo.
He introduced the same resolution last year. Though the House did not approve it, the measure gained the support of 70 lawmakers from both the minority and majority.