GMA seeks SC ruling on house arrest plea

MANILA, Philippines - Detained former president and reelected Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal–Arroyo has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to rule on her petition for house arrest.

In a seven-page motion filed earlier this week, Arroyo insisted on her appeal for house arrest pending resolution of her bail petition in the plunder case lodged against her before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the P366-million Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office fund anomaly.

Arroyo lamented that the SC has yet to resolve the motion for house arrest she filed in December last year.

“The high court has not acted on the petitioner’s urgent motion for house arrest pending receipt of the OSG’s comment,” Arroyo declared, referring to the Office of the Solicitor General.

Arroyo asked the SC to place her under house arrest at her home in La Vista Subdivision, Quezon City.

She has been detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center since 2011.

Last December, the SC granted Arroyo a holiday furlough.

The high tribunal also allowed the former president to celebrate her 69th birthday with her family on April 5.

Earlier this month, the SC allowed Arroyo to vote in her hometown of Lubao, Pampanga, and granted her petition to undergo dental procedures for four days at a Makati clinic.

The SC stopped the trial of Arroyo for plunder by issuing a status quo ante order on the proceedings before the Sandiganbayan’s First Division pending the resolution of her petition for bail.

The SC order will remain in effect until June 20.