Davao Sur mayor accused in journalist’s slay rushed to hospital

MATANAO, Davao del Sur, Philippines — Mayor Vicente Fernandez Jr., one of the accused in the 2010 murder of journalist Nestor Bedolido, was rushed to the hospital due to hypertension.

Senior Insp. Elmer Cabuslay, chief of this town’s police, said Fernandez was brought to the Digos Doctors Hospital in Digos City as his blood pressure shot up on Tuesday.

Fernandez’s hospitalization came after Judge Loid Kahulugan of the Regional Trial Court Branch 21 ordered his transfer from the Matanao police jail to the Provincial Rehabilitation Center in Digos City following the clarificatory hearing on the charges against him, former Davao del Sur governor Douglas Cagas, and several other accused in the Bedolido murder case.

Cabuslay said they have already notified the court about Fernandez’s condition.

Fernandez and Cagas were set to be arraigned on June 23 after Kahulugan took over the case from the previous judges who inhibited from hearing it due to varied reasons.