Senate doc confirms Mike Arroyo's poor health

The resident physician of the Senate on Thursday confirmed that former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo was incapable of attending a blue ribbon committee hearing due to health reasons. "Kung ako tatanungin talagang grabe din ang sakit niya lalo na kung sinubject mo siya sa stress kasi magdi-dissect, maghihiwalay yung blood vessels niya," Dr. Mariano Blancia, director of the Senate medical and dental bureau, told reporters. Mr. Arroyo, earlier in the day, skipped the inquiry on the controversial purchase of choppers by the police force on the advice of his doctors. He said he could not be subjected to stress because of his “dissecting aortic aneurysm." Blue ribbon committee chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III ordered Blancia and Dr. Manuel Chua Chiaco, as executive director of the Philippine Heart Center, to verify Mr. Arroyo’s condition. In a letter to Guingona, Blancia said he and Dr. Ernesto Sison Jr. went to the St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig to confer with Mr. Arroyo’s cardiologist, Dr. Jose Nicholas Cruz. “Dr. Cruz affirmed the veracity of the medical certificate issued to the blue ribbon committee," he said. He noted, however, that they have yet to decide on whether to recommend that Mr. Arroyo be allowed to skip the blue ribbon committee’s investigation on the controversy about the second-hand helicopters sold to the Philippine National Police (PNP) in 2009. “Wala pa ako nirerecommend kasi nirefer na siya sa specialist for assistance... it’s up to Dr. Chua Chiaco to assess yung condition niya," Blancia said. Blancia said they will not examine Mr. Arroyo and will just look at his medical records. In a separate letter to Guingona, Chiaco asked the senator to allow him to review the medical records and diagnostic tests done on Mr. Arroyo so that he can make an "objective assessment" on the former First Gentleman’s fitness to attend Senate inquiry. Mr. Arroyo was invited to the Senate blue ribbon inquiry for his alleged involvement in the PNP's multimillion pesos purchase of supposedly brand new helicopters in 2009. Several witnesses have testified, however, that two of the three choppers bought by the PNP were previously owned by Mr. Arroyo. He has since denied the allegation.- KBK, GMA News