MANILA, Philippines?Celso de los Angeles, the founder of the collapsed Legacy Group who is found to be suffering from cancer of the tonsils, will undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment starting this week, according to his lawyer.

?They are hoping the therapy will reduce the tumor and improve his chances of survival when he decides to be operated on,? said lawyer Noel Malaya.

Marilen Lagniton, vice-president for communication for St. Luke?s Medical Center, confirmed that De los Angeles would undergo chemotherapy and radiation soon.

He said De Los Angeles was still confined at the St. Luke?s in Quezon City.

Malaya said that De los Angeles? cancer is in an advanced state, ?stage 4.?

He described his client?s mood as ?like a roller coaster? because of his apprehensions about a surgery where his chance of survival is considered to be very slim.

?If he goes under the knife, he was told the survival rate is only 10 percent,? Malaya said.

De los Angeles is unable to talk and communicates by scribbling on a ?magic slate,? the lawyer said.

?He is being fed through a tube directly to his stomach, instead of the tube on his throat before,? he said.

The lawyer also said that De los Angeles has been informed about the death from cancer last week of Jesus Martinez, the commissioner of the Security and Exchange Commission who was linked to the Legacy scandal.

Malaya said that despite his illness, De los Angeles said he would like to continue his legal battles.

?He wants to prove his innocence, and that when he was already a mayor he no longer called the shots [at Legacy], and that it was the two top officials [who were] operating the company,? Malaya said.

The lawyer also said De los Angeles? siblings, a brother and sister who are both doctors, had flown in from the United States and are taking care of him.

De los Angeles, who is the mayor of Santo Domingo, Albay, is facing multiple charges of syndicated estafa (fraud) and securities fraud brought against him by private investors, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) for the fraudulent schemes that he allegedly perpetrated in the shuttered Legacy banks and pre-need firms. Nancy Carvajal