Prosecutors ask Sandigan not to give GMA Christmas furlough
State prosecutors have asked the Sandiganbayan First Division not to allow former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to spend Christmas and New Year at her home in Quezon City.
“It must be pointed out that should the accused’s motion be granted, it opens doors to every detained person to apply for a prison furlough and be allowed temporary liberty to be able to celebrate the holidays,” state prosecutors said in their comment on the motion that sought Arroyo’s furlough.
State lawyers also pointed out that: “The furlough that she is asking is not one of the privileges she may enjoy as a detention prisoner. On the contrary, such a request runs counter to the very essence of her detention.”
Every year, Arroyo, who has been under hospital detention at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City since Dec. 9, 2011, asks the First Division to be allowed to spend the yuletide season out of the medical facility. But her requests had always been denied.
Citing her declining health due to her prolonged confinement, her lawyers again sought her furlough to celebrate the holiday season with her family from Dec. 21 to Jan. 3. The furlough is recommended by doctors as part of a holistic approach that could contribute to the improvement of her medical condition.
The First Division is handling the non-bailable plunder case against Arroyo and her co-accused for allegedly diverting more than 360 million from the Confidential/Intelligence Fund (CIF) of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) from 2008 to 2010 .
“The prosecution maintains its stand to vehemently oppose accused Arroyo’s motion for hospital leave during the yuletide season,” state prosecutors stressed.
The prosecution pointed out that Arroyo has “no legal basis for a temporary liberty from confinement being a detention prisoner charged with a nonbailable offense.”
“Her assertion is merely anchored on the magnanimity and compassion of the Honorable Court because of the yuletide season rather than it is granted to her by law,” state lawyers noted.
State prosecutors asserted
that the court had already showed compassion to Arroyo when she was allowed to placed “under hospital arrest to secure her health and to enable to immediately respond to her medical needs.”