Courts let De Lima spend 3 days in hospital

Detained Sen. Leila de Lima was allowed by the Muntinlupa City courts handling her remaining drug cases to be admitted into hospital after she apparently suffered from a mild stroke on Wednesday.

In separate orders issued on Friday, Judge Liezel Aquiatan of Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 205 and Judge Romeo Buenaventura of Muntinlupa RTC Branch 256 granted De Lima’s urgent motion for medical furlough, allowing her to undergo medical tests.

The senator can leave her cell at the custodial center of the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame, Quezon City, at 10 a.m. on Saturday and be confined at Manila Doctors Hospital (MDH) in Manila for three days.

According to her lawyers, the 61-year-old De Lima complained on April 21 of “bouts of headache and persistent generalized weakness.” Her physician, Dr. Meophilia Santos-Cao, said she might have experienced transient ischemic attack, or a mild stroke.

Santos-Cao recommended that De Lima immediately undergo a brain MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to rule out cerebrovascular accident (stroke). The PNP General Hospital has no MRI services available.

De Lima on Friday said she would not be staying in the hospital longer than her prescribed tests and would give regular reports on her condition.

She said she would shoulder all the costs of her hospitalization.

The senator, her lawyers and family members were barred by the court from giving media interviews or press statements during her furlough.

In February, De Lima, who’s now in her fourth year of detention, underwent a routine general medical examination also at MDH, where she stayed for roughly 24 hours.

Citing the test results, she said she was not suffering from any serious health condition. INQ