United Nations slams Arroyo detention

Clooney – wife of United States of America actor George Clooney – was quoted as saying the group had decided Arroyo’s detention on corruption charges was politically motivated.

A lawyer of former president and now Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Friday said the Philippine government should consider the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s opinion that Arroyo’s detention “violates worldwide law and is arbitrary on a number of grounds”.

She said her doctors advised her to undergo an electromyography and a nerve conduction velocity test after she complained of numbness in her left arm.

Arroyo’s case is being heard by Philippine courts, independent bodies that have the “sole jurisdiction” to decide on the detention of accused like her, Coloma said. Clooney was responsible in calling worldwide attention on the plight of Arroyo by filing a complaint against President Aquino and the Philippine government before the UN.

Refuting the position of a United Nations panel that assailed the continued detention of the ailing Mrs. Arroyo, De Lima said the former President is still facing a plunder case — a non-bailable offense – involving alleged irregularities in the funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

The government, he added, “will prepare an appropriate response, according to the WGAD’s rules”.

Many lawyers, including critics of Arroyo, chided De Lima for her actions as they pointed out later that Arroyo was released on bail for the charge of violation of election laws which was the Justice secretary’s basis for preventing Arroyo to seek medical help overseas. “But after consultation with my constituents, supporters and family, we’ve come to the conclusion that there is still much to be done in Las Piñas and in the House of Representatives”, Villar, son of former Senate President Manuel “Manny” Villar, Jr., said.

Arroyo appealed to the Supreme Court in April after the Sandiganbayan last year denied the petition for bail she filed in January 2013 and a supplemental motion she filed in October of the same year.

She is confined at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Manila as she claims to be suffering from cervical spondylosis, a degenerative disease of the bones and cartilage of the neck.