FORMER president and now Pampanga 2nd District Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will have to stay longer at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center because she is suffering from cervical and lumbar osteoarthritis and will need physical therapy.

Doctor Antonio Sison, one of the doctors of Mrs. Arroyo at the VMMC, yesterday told Pasay City Regional Trial Court Branch 112 Judge Jesus Mupas.

“While her condition had improved, she still has osteoarthritis and must undergo physical therapy three times a week for four weeks as well as medication,” Sison said.

He said that with her improved condition, the 64-year- old former president has no need to wear braces while at the VMMC’s presidential suite but she will have to wear one if she goes out of the hospital, especially for a protracted period of time.

The findings was contained in a three-page clinical abstract, a one-page orthopedic abstract and another three-page medical abstract submitted by the VMMC doctors to the court.

Sison, along with the rest of Arroyo’s doctors, Victoria Javier, Martha Nocum, Rafaelita Javier and Ruben Cardenas, was summoned by Mupas to explain to the court the former president’s condition as it heard a petition filed by the Commission on Elections seeking her transfer to a regular detention jail if her physical condition allows it.

Last month, VMMC Director Nona Legaspi said Arroyo’s condition is stable and there is no need to subject her to another operation.

The former president will be arraigned on February 20 along with her co-accused, former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and former Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol.