Ex-president Arroyo's family allowed Christmas visit
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The family of former Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is to be allowed to visit her overnight in the hospital where she is detained on charges of election fraud, a court ruled yesterday.
The Sandiganbayan, a special court for government officials suspected of misconduct, said it relaxed the restrictions for the public holidays out of “humanitarian considerations”.
Arroyo, hospitalised with a spine complaint, had asked the court to make exceptions to its December 9 ruling, which forbids any visitors after 9.30pm. Her family would be allowed to “stay with the accused the whole day of December 24, the whole day of December 25, the whole day of December 31 and the whole day of January 1 at her detention quarters at the Veterans Memorial Medical Centre,” the court said.
