| Police check the presidential suite of the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City (Metro Manila) where former President Gloria Arroyo will be transferred next week. PHOTO BY RUY MARTINEZ |
SHE will be detained at the presidential suite of the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City (Metro Manila) and accorded the courtesy and respect that befit a former leader, but life won’t be sweet for former President Gloria Arroyo there.
Mrs. Arroyo will not be allowed to use computers or cell phones, and her visitors will have to undergo strict security measures. Inside, several security personnel, possibly from the Philippine National Police (PNP)-Police and Security Protection Group (PSPG), will guard the former leader. Outside the hospital, members of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) will be posted.
The suite, a 150-square-meter facility, has a receiving room, a patient room, a family or living room and a dining room. There is also a room for security personnel.
Dr. Nona Legazpi, VMMC director, said that the presidential suite is bullet proof.
PNP Chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome vowed that they will strictly follow the court order banning the use of laptops and cell phones in the hospital facility where Mrs. Arroyo will stay.
He said that he is considering taping the PSPG to be the custodian of Mrs. Arroyo, adding that they will follow the same procedures implemented during the confinement of former President Joseph Estrada at VMMC.
“She will be confined, meaning we will verify and check visitors because she will be placed under the custody of the PNP,” Bartolome added.
The Department of National Defense (DND) gave assurances that Mrs. Arroyo, now the representative of the second district of Pampanga Province, would be accorded the courtesy and security arrangements fit for a former head of state and a lawmaker.
“We want to assure the public that the VMMC will provide the necessary accommodation, medical care and courtesies fit for the former president,” DND spokesman Peter Paul Galvez said.
“The staff of the VMCC have the necessary experience in handling this kind of situation,” he said.
Galvez added that the VMMC presidential suite has been spruced up and painted white. Pasay City (also in Metro Manila) Regional Trial Court Judge Jesus Mupas inspected the facility last week.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo said that Mrs. Arroyo will be safe at the VMMC.
“There is no way that harm would come her way while confined at the veterans’ hospital. It is the duty of this government to use all its resources to secure and protect her. If anything wrong happens to her while inside said government facility, then it will be the liability of this administration,” he said.
With report from Jing Villamente
