Arroyo in bid to avoid police custody

Former president Gloria Arroyo asked a regional trial court for house arrest after her doctors allowed her to be discharged from a hospital in suburban Taguig and recover at home in suburban Quezon City, but a government lawyer asked the same court to order her detention in a police station in suburban Taguig. Commission on Elections (Comelec) lawyer Maria Juana Valeza asked Pasay City's regional trial court to order Arroyo's incarceration at a detention centre of the southern police district in Fort Bonifacio Taguig. Arroyo's lawyers have not yet formally submitted their request for house arrest, said Pasay City's Clerk of Court Joel Palicano. But the court gave Arroyo and government lawyers until Tuesday to file their petitions, said Palicano, adding the trial court has also allowed Arroyo to remain at the St Luke's Medical Centre in Taguig until the decision of the two petitions is reached in the second week of December. Explaining the government's request, Valeza said, "The southern police district's detention centre is wide. It has amenities for her personal and medical needs … Government officials will not have a hard time to monitor the police detention centre." Recovering After Arroyo's doctors sent a report to the court saying she has been slowly recovering from her bone disease, fluctuating blood pressure, and anorexia, and could recover at home, Arroyo's lawyer Jose Flaminiano asked the court to place her under house arrest. "Considering the marked improvement in her condition … we withdrew a motion for her hospital arrest," explained another lawyer Raul Lambino. Had her physical condition deteriorated, Comelec's plan was to ask the court to transfer her to a government hospital from St Luke's Medical Centre. On November 22, the same court allowed Arroyo temporary hospital arrest. She underwent three operations for pinched nerve on her spine in the same hospital months ago. On November 18, she was served warrant of arrest at the hospital for alleged electoral sabotage in 2007, hours after the Comelec and justice department transferred to a regional trial court the complaint against her. On November 15, Arroyo went to St Luke's Medical Centre, from Ninoy Aquino International Airport where she was barred by immigration officials from leaving the country for medical treatment. Rigging charge At that time, the justice department said the watch list order on Arroyo was in effect. But at the time, the Supreme Court also upheld Arroyo's right to travel since there was no case, just complaints, filed against her at the justice department. Arroyo faces life imprisonment if she is convicted of conspiring with a powerful Filipino-Muslim political family to rig elections for the victory of her allies in Congress in 2007. President Benigno Aquino ran in 2010 with a campaign to end corruption, election fraud, and political killings.