Aquino okays GMA detention at St. Luke’s; critics decry ‘special treatment’

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino  III has given the thumbs up to hospital arrest for his predecessor former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo.

Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ricky Carandang said the President will not object to letting Mrs. Arroyo stay at St. Luke’s Hospital in Taguig where she can recuperate instead of throwing her in jail.

Carandang said the President excused himself from a gala dinner at the ASEAN summit in Bali, Indonesia to get updates on the arrest of Mrs. Arroyo.

Carandang clarified that the President attended the other functions except the gala dinner.

The former President was detained in her hospital room Friday  following charges of electoral sabotage preventing her flight to Singapore.

Carandang said Aquino had instructed officials that Arroyo should be treated with respect, adding that Arroyo's lawyers were expected to seek a court ruling that she should be allowed to remain in hospital rather than be moved to a prison cell.

"If they do that, we will not object," he said.       

Aquino missed a talk over coffee with Filipino journalists as he kept tabs on developments following the arrest of Arroyo.

Reports said that Aquino missed his coffee break with the members of the Malacañang Press Corps covering the ASEAN summit in Bali, Indonesia as he was  monitoring Arroyo’s arrest, making sure that the former President  is accorded  respect and utmost courtesy owing to her medical condition and being a former leader of the land.

Aquino, who flew in at Bali late last night, was in Indonesia for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit.

Arroyo was placed under hospital arrest Friday evening after a Pasay City court issued a warrant for her arrest on charges of poll fraud.

She spent her first night under hospital arrest Friday at the St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig City.