Ex-President Gloria Arroyo opens up about family’s health ordeal

MANILA, Philippines — Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is now Pampanga 2nd District representative to the House, bared the health struggles her family is going through.

In a Facebook post on Monday night, Arroyo revealed that the recurring heart condition of her husband, Mike, has returned and that her son, Mikey, went through an ordeal brought on by thyroid cancer.

“First, my husband Mike’s dissecting aortic [aneurysm] that required an emergency repair in 2007 is expanding again, and he will have to undergo a big surgery, [including] a bypass and aortoplasty, on April 7 to avert another emergency,” Arroyo said.

The 14th president of the country will be leaving soon for Singapore for her husband’s surgery.

“Then, our son Mikey’s biopsy revealed Stage One cancer of the thyroid gland, and he underwent surgery last March 18, thankfully a successful one,” the former chief executive continued.

Meanwhile, Arroyo also said one of her close relatives recently passed away.

“Paowee Tantoco, the husband of our niece Dina, who spent the first four years of her life in our home, passed away,” she said.

Nowadays, Arroyo said she is spending much time with her Pampanga constituents.

“This has been a difficult time for the family,” Arroyo said. “Please pray for my family.”

Just like her husband, Arroyo also had a heart condition.

In 2012, she was put into intensive care due to coronary ischemia, or diminished blood flow to the heart, while she was on hospital arrest at Veterans Memorial Medical Center.

 

 

(2025/04/01-07:31)