Where to keep her

House arrest? Hospital arrest? Detention in a jail? Or detention in a government hospital? Which will it be for former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who is facing a charge of electoral sabotage and possibly other charges of election irregularities, plunder, corruption and violation of human rights?

Judge Jesus Mupas of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court that will try the first case of electoral sabotage against her will decide where she will be detained while under trial. Meanwhile, a lot of people have expressed their opinions on the matter of her detention. Some have said that as a former president, a woman and a patient suffering from various illnesses, Arroyo should be given special consideration and special accommodation while under trial.

President Aquino has given the assurance that Arroyo will be treated fairly and humanely. Malacañang has said Mr. Aquino was not going after the former president out of sheer “vindictiveness.’’ Abigail Valte, the President’s deputy spokesperson, said: “This is not about vindictiveness. This is not about political persecution. This is about accountability.’’ And truly, the government is going through all the legal processes to exact accountability from the former president for her many alleged “crimes and sins’’ against the nation.

In deciding where Arroyo should be detained while facing trial, Mupas might consider where presidents of the Philippines and other countries were detained while facing trial.

Jose P. Laurel, a member of the Cabinet of President Manuel L. Quezon who later became president of the puppet Philippine Republic during the Japanese occupation, was first detained in Sugamo prison in Japan by the US Army after the end of the Pacific War. He was returned to Manila and detained in Muntinlupa prison to await trial for collaboration.

President Joseph Estrada, the first Philippine chief executive to be charged with the non-bailable offense of plunder, was put under hospital arrest while facing an impeachment trial in the Senate. Then he was transferred to a detention cell in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, and later, to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center. He finally served his sentence in his own resthouse in Tanay, Rizal.

In South Korea, President Roh Tae-woo was arrested and jailed in 1995 for allegedly taking more than $300 million in bribes from 30 business tycoons. A news report said “a jeering crowd pelted his black limousine with eggs and yelled ‘Thief!’ as Roh was whisked away to an unheated solitary cell in the Seoul Detention Center where he was later made to wear white prison fatigues and fed such meager fare as pickled vegetables [probably kim chi], barley and rice.’’

Also in 1995, former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan was arrested for ordering a bloody crackdown on a civilian uprising in Kwangju City in 1980, a year after he grabbed power in a military coup. As Chun neared the prison gates in Anyang, situated on the outskirts of Seoul, protesters threw stones and shouted insults at the former president.

After spending only about two years behind bars, Roh and Chun were pardoned after a joint decision by then President-elect Kim Dae-jung and incumbent President Kim Young-sam.

At the start of the case against Chun, President Kim Young-sam pushed for the enactment of a special law to punish those responsible for the Kwangju case. The bribery scandal involving Roh was said to have given Kim the opportunity he needed to show that his administration and its leader could clear away the painful legacy of the past.

Similarly, the arrest and detention of Arroyo is giving President Aquino the opportunity he needs to show that his administration can fulfill its promise to punish the government officials who plundered state coffers and ordered the commission of human rights violations. Let there be no special, extraordinary treatment for Arroyo. If ever, she should be confined in a government hospital like the National Orthopedic Hospital or Veterans Memorial Medical Center where her predecessor, Estrada, was detained while facing an impeachment trial and after he was sentenced to prison for plunder.

As the President’s spokesperson has stressed, the case against Arroyo is not about vindictiveness, it is about accountability. She has to answer for her alleged crimes against the Filipino people.