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Saturday, June 24, 2006
I’m OK, I’m fine: Arroyo; she gets ready for Europe trip
President Arroyo, hospitalized overnight for abdominal pain, recovered quickly from acute diarrhea and can proceed with a planned visit to Europe, her doctors said yesterday.
Arroyo, 59, was taken to St. Luke’s Medical Center late Thursday after falling ill, Chief of Staff Michael Defensor said.
“With that problem of diarrhea and vomiting ... we decided to hydrate her,” said Dr. Juliet Cervantes, a gastroenterologist.
“Our diagnosis is acute infectious diarrhea, probably secondary to a viral infection that had already been resolved. She recovered just by hydrating only,” Cervantes told reporters.
“She can be discharged anytime. However, with the request of the family, she will stay a little longer in the hospital,” likely until today.
“I don’t think this is anything to worry about,” the president’s eldest son, Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, said after visiting his mother Friday morning.
Arroyo’s staff brought a group of government journalists to her hospital suite. Also in her room were presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor and Presidential Management Staff chief Arthur Yap.
“I’m feeling fine,” she told them, smiling broadly and gesturing with her hands.
Asked if she was going ahead with her overseas trip, she said, “Yes, yes.”
Arroyo, in a hospital gown, was sitting on her bed with a laptop computer and drafts of speeches she was to give during her European trip.
“I just want you to know that I am fine,” she said.
The President also told reporters that they too were able to get a rest because all her events have for the day have been cancelled. “Makakapagpahinga kayo dahil hindi n’yo ako hinahabol (You’ll all be able to rest because you won’t be running after me),” she said.
Defensor said the “light work” that the President referred to is an order to Armed Forces Chief Gene-roso Senga to ensure that arms pilferage does not happen in “other logistical areas.”
He said the President also called on her supporters not to send her flowers or food and to just send donations to the victims of Mt. Bulusan.
Health Secretary Franciso Duque III said Arroyo’s attending physician had given the President the go-signal to leave the hospital but the First Family had decided to Arroyo stand a day more to rest completely.
Arroyo will leave the hospital this morning.
Police in the capital, already on a heightened state of alert amid possible bomb attacks, were upgraded to full alert after Arroyo fell ill “so there is a stabilizing factor ... to deliver the message that there’s no cause for alarm,” said National Capital Region Police Chief Vidal Querol.
The president, who has gone from crisis to crisis during five years in power, has said security forces foiled a plot to overthrow her in February.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the President had been at a restaurant in suburban Quezon City for an early birthday party for her husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo. His birthday is next week, but Arroyo was scheduled to leave Saturday night for a trip to Italy, the Vatican and Spain.
A presidential palace official, who asked not to be identified due to policy, said Arroyo would leave Sunday morning instead. (AP/Sunnex)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 24, 2006 issue)
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