Ampatuan transferred to V. Luna hospital

MANILA, Philippines—Former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. was being   transferred to the V. Luna Hospital in Quezon City Friday afternoon after reportedly throwing up blood.

Senior Inspector John Conrad Basilio, warden of the Quezon City Jail Annex in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig, said that Ampatuan left the Taguig Pateros District Hospital at around 2:45 p.m.

“The jail staff accompanying him said there was insufficient equipment at the Taguig-Pateros Hospital to treat him,” Basilio said in a phone interview.

Ampatuan was rushed to the Taguig-Pateros District Hospital at around 11:30 a.m. on Friday after vomitting blood.

“He was also having difficulty in breathing, fever and low blood pressure,” Basilio added.

Basilio, citing jail staff accompanying Ampatuan, said that the former governor’s illnes had yet to be identified.

Security was tight as a convoy of several vehicles and more than 10 jail security officers accompanied Ampatuan to the hospital.

A jail doctor and several nurses also accompanied Ampatuan’s convoy to the Taguig Pateros District Hospital.

One doctor from the hospital accompanied the convoy as it headed off for V. Luna Hospital.

Bureau of Jail Management and Penology chief, Jail Director Rosendo Dial, said they decided to send Ampatuan to the hospital for checkup and laboratory exam.

Since his imprisonment in December 2009, Dial said Ampatuan has been suffering from hypertension, diabetes and skin disease.

Ampatuan has been behind bars since 2009, along with his son, Ampatuan Jr. and several other members of the Ampatuan clan implicated in the Maguindanao massacre case where 58 people, including 32 journalists, were killed. With Jamie Marie Elona, INQUIRER.net