A handful of her “cabalens” greeted her with repeated chants of “We love you GMA” as she emerged from her Mercedes Benz on the campus at about 9:20 a.m. She maintained a smile and looked comforted by her supporters during her short sojourn to her precinct that she last visited in 2010.
Wearing her neck brace, a floral blouse, skinny jeans and flat shoes, Arroyo smiled and waved as she walked to her precinct. She turned down requests for “selfie” photographs, saying she had been prohibited from this.
The only prominent official who welcomed her was Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda who only recently declared support for Liberal Party presidential candidate Mar Roxas. Roxas is backed by Pres. Aquino who is known to have pushed for the plunder charges that led to the detention of Arroyo at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC.
Yesterday, however, Arroyo and Pineda warmly greeted each other.
Arroyo arrived with her husband Mike as voter No. 9, and their son Mikey and wife Mikaela who were also voters at Precinct 001-A. They arrived at about 9:20 a.m. and left at about 9:34 to return to the VMMC. At teacher at the precinct said the former president was 69th in the voter’s list because she was listed with the Macapagal not Arroyo surname. When the former president arrived, only two other voters were at her precinct and there was no queue of voters.
While only a few voters were at the polling center, the board of election inspectors at the center said the former president was slated to be given priority both as a senior citizen and disabled.
The former president screened her receipt that showed the candidates she voted for, and then walked back to her car amid a crowd of supporters who repeatedly told her “We love you.”
Amid her neck ailment, Arroyo has been under hospital arrest at the VMMC for the alleged misappropriation of the P366-million PCSO funds during her presidential term.
In 2014, Arroyo asked the court to let her register for the 2016 election in her hometown here. The Sandiganbayan’s anti-graft court’s first division has then approved the motion and gave Arroyo the opportunity to undergo biometric registration after she was deactivated as voter for missing two elections consecutively.
Arroyo has a pending petition asking the Supreme Court to reverse the Sandiganbayan’s decision to deny her to post bail. In the said petition, she cited her deteriorating health as the reason for her request to reverse the Sandiganbayan ruling.
