Arroyo asks Sandiganbayan for three-week hospital leave

Yahoo! Southeast Asia Newsroom – 19 hours ago


Former president, now Pampanga second-district Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wearing a neck brace during an activity in Lubao, Pampanga Province, around 100-kilometers north of Manila. Arroyo will have to temporarily wear a neck brace after she was rushed to the hospital yesterday due to a pinched nerve. (Marlo Cueto/NPPA Images

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo asked the Sandiganbayan to allow her to celebrate Christmas and New Year with her family in Pampanga for three weeks on late Tuesday.

Arroyo’s lawyer Maria Rosario Rosario sought permission from the anti-graft court’s First Division for her to leave Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) from December 21, 2012 to January 7, 2013.

“In keeping with the spirit of joy, hope, peace, love and goodwill during the Yuletide season…  the accused respectfully pleads that this Honorable Court grant her leave… to celebrate Christmas and New Year with her family and relatives in Lubao,” the petition stated.


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The seven-page motion urged Sandiganbayan to grant her three-week hospital leave, noting the former leader has not seen many of her relatives in the past 18 months.

The defense counsel cited a notification from the Quezon City hospital, which informed them that VMMC only maintains a skeletal force during Christmas season.

Rosario explained Arroyo cannot undergo her required physical therapy at the VMMC considering only half of hospital personnel “and likely no therapists” will be reporting for duty during the said period.