Sandigan nixes CGMA request to attend brother’s 40th day mass

Former President, now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo can’t attend her late brother, Arturo de la Rosa Macapagal’s 40th day mass this Saturday.

In a resolution dated September 14, the Sandiganbayan First Division turned down the motion of Arroyo to go to the Heritage Memorial Park in Taguig City for the 40th day mass, inurnment rites and post-inurnment prayers for her brother.

“The Court is not inclined to grant the accused-movant’s motion,” stressed the resolution that was signed by Chairperson Efren dela Cruz and Associate Justices Rodolfo Ponferrada and Rafael Lagos.

“Suffice it to state that being a detention prisoner, just like all other detention prisoners, accused Arroyo cannot be allowed the full enjoyment of her rights, be it civil or political,” the tribunal explained.

The First Division assured that “the inherent and consequent restraints in some of her rights does not run counter to the constitutional presumption of her innocence, for the rule stands that until a promulgation of final conviction is made, the constitutional mandate of presumption of innocence prevails.”

The court also noted the opposition raised by state prosecutors who stated that “there is no need for the accused-movant to be allowed to go to the Heritage Memorial Park, as she can recite her prayers for her deceased brother even while she is in the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC).”

Arroyo, who is being held at the VMMC, had been previously allowed by the Sandiganbayan First Division to attend her older brother’s wake and his burial at the Heritage Memorial Park last August 15.

Macapagal, 72, died at 6:40 a.m. after suffering from prostate cancer. He had been confined at the Makati Memorial Medical Center since July 2.