President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will celebrate Easter beside First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, who is still confined at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Global City, Taguig.

Press Secretary Jun Icban Jr. said that since day one of the First Gentleman at the hospital, Mrs. Arroyo has been by her husband’s side to watch over him, while keenly monitoring the state affairs.

“She will spend her Easter at the hospital,” Icban said.

He said that the President’s Black Saturday is also spent at the hospital with the First Family.

The President spent her Holy Week at the hospital to take care of her husband, who was rushed to the St. Luke’s on March 25 after he developed a “re-dissection of the thoracic aorta and experienced back pains.”

Icban also noted that the President will push through with her Lubao visit this Monday, marking her 63rd birthday.

Along with her Cabinet members and other top government officials, she will be attending the 7 a.m. mass at San Agustin Church in her hometown of Lubao in Pampanga.

Asked about the planned noise barrage by the militant groups on Monday, to mark the President’s birthday celebration and to remind her of stepping down on June 30, Icban said: “The President has been repeatedly saying that she would step down and would turn over leadership to the next administration. If they don’t believe her, we cannot do anything about it.”

Militant groups Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and Anakpawis vowed to hold their noise barrage on Monday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. to bid goodbye to the President, as well as to challenge her to face the charges against her after she steps down from presidency in June.

On several occasions, President Arroyo reassured that she would never meddle in the conduct of May 10 elections, saying that she would remain focused on her governance, including the implementation of major infrastructure projects.

The President has always been asking the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to help ensure credible, orderly and honest polls on May 10.

In her Memorandum Order no. 309 dated January 15, Mrs. Arroyo concurred with the Comelec’s Resolution No. 8718, which was promulgated on December 17 last year in the deputation of the military “for the purpose of free, orderly, honest, peaceful and credible conduct of the May 10, 2010 national and local elections.”

It was recalled that the President made a call with Virgilio Olivar Garcillano, known as “Garci,” a former official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) who was allegedly behind the electoral fraud in 2004 national elections.

The “Hello Garci” scandal is among the controversies which have long been hounding the Arroyo administration, including the fertilizer fund scam and the government’s broadband deal with the ZTE Corp.

Mrs. Arroyo also vowed that there would smooth transition in June after her term expires.

Last January, Malacañang asked the police and military to only take cue from the Comelec this election period as it expressed confidence that the Comelec is in full control of the situation.