Intl day vs corruption marks Gloria Arroyo’s 1st day in govt detention

Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was transfer to a makeshift government detention facility at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) on Friday, which coincidentally marks the United Nations (UN)-designated International Anti-Corruption Day.   It could not have happened at a better time, netizens said.   “There’s a rhyme and reason to things, synchronicity,” said Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party spokesperson Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel through her Twitter account @risahontiveros. Other netizens expressed similar views.     From the high-end St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City, Arroyo on Friday arrived at the government-run VMMC in Quezon City to serve her hospital arrest in relation to an electoral sabotage case the Commission on Elections filed against her.   ‘Against the cancer of corruption’   Held every Dec. 9, the UN General Assembly designated the International Anti-Corruption Day “to raise awareness of corruption” and of the UN Convention against Corruption “in combating and preventing it.”   “All of us have a responsibility to take action against the cancer of corruption,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement.   “Although the poor may be marginalized by corruption, they will not be silenced. In events across the Arab world and beyond this year, ordinary people have joined their voices in denouncing corruption and demanding that governments combat this crime against democracy,” Ban added. — VS, GMA News