Court tackles motion to transfer GMA to jail

WILL former President Gloria Arroyo soon be moved to a regular detention cell?

This question cropped up after the Regional Trial Court ( RTC) of Pasay City ( Metro Manila) sum- moned Chief Supt. Lina Sarmiento, head of the Police Security Protection Group of the Philip- pine National Police, to discuss the security implications of transferring Mrs. Arroyo from the Veterans Memorial Medical Center ( VMMC) in Quezon City ( also in Metro Manila) to a regular jail.

The court is set to tackle the motion of the Commission on Elections ( Comelec) asking that the former president be moved from the VMMC to a detention cell.

According to the Comelec petition, Mrs. Arroyo should be taken out of hospital arrest once doctors attest that she has recovered.

House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez of Quezon province, a partymate of the former leader, said on Tuesday that Mrs. Arroyo was better and that she was no longer wearing her neck brace.

The former president’s camp, however, claimed that she was still suffering from back and neck pains.

The VMMC has submitted to the Pasay court medical records, including the clinical abstract, orthopedic abstract, and medical abstract of the former leader.

Mrs. Arroyo is under hospital arrest for electoral sabotage.

Also on Thursday, the camp of the former president asked the court to allow her to attend the wake of her brother- in- law, Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo Jr. of Negros Occidental province.

Pasay RTC Judge Jesus Mupas will likely hear the petition today.