After seven months of hospital arrest, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is finally out of detention on provisional liberty as her convoy coasted off the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) at about 2:35 this afternoon. Her
daughter Luli Arroyo-Bernas was at the hospital talking to media people while
the former President was preparing to leave the area.
Reports had her camp posting bail amounting to 1 Million
Pesos at the Pasay Regional Trial Court where charges had been filed against
her for electoral sabotage by the Commission on Elections. Judge Jesus Mupas
had decided to grant bail, a move that had anticipated strong public protestations.
Allegations of rigging had stemmed from the May 2004
Presidential Elections where a wiretapped taped voiced recording had determined
her to have made improper communications and activities particularly that of
contacting then COMELEC Commissioner Virgilio Garcilliano, in what had then
become the “Hello, Garci” controversy. This expose was made by Samuel Ong, former
deputy director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Latest reports have stated that the former President will be
heading straight to La Vista subdivision in Quezon City.
Many now criticizes this latest development as a slap in the
face of President Benigno Aguino III, happening just two days after his State
of the Nation Address emphasizing once more his administration’s drive to weed
out corruption in the government. It should be noted that Pnoy was once a
student of former President Arroyo at the Ateneo de Manila University Economics
Department where the latter once had been a professor of Economics there.
Have Pnoy finally gone weak and soft on corruption? Is the
public being treated to a veiled masquerade?
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