Sandiganbayan grants GMA leave to attend grandson’s wake

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2009. (Wikipeida photo)

Detained former president, now Pampanga Representative, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been granted furlough by the Sandiganbayan that she may attend the wake of her 13-month-old grandson in North Forbes Park, Makati City.

The anti-graft and corruption court last night placed Arroyo under temporary house arrest, allowing her to be with her family in this period of mourning.

Arroyo was allowed by magistrates of the Sandiganbayan First Division to leave the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) from 8 p.

m. to 10 p.m. The former president is detained on charges of plunder.

Final plans for the internment are yet to be made.

Jorge Alonzo Arroyo Bernas, youngest child of Arroyo’s daughter youngest “Luli” Arroyo-Bernas and Luigi Bernas, succumbed to the complications at approximately 9:30 a.m at the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City.

Arroyo was devastated by the news of her grandson’s passing.

“A day that was supposed to bring joy in the form of a grandson delivered unspeakable grief instead,” she said, as she made her urgent request for furlough.