Ampatuan patriarch taken to hospital
The patriarch of the Ampatuan clan charged with the 2009 massacre of 57 persons, including 31 journalists, in Maguindanao province, was rushed to a hospital on Friday after vomiting blood, officials said.
Former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., who is detained with other family members at the Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, was brought to the Taguig-Pateros District Hospital at past noon, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) said.
Security was tight as a convoy of several vehicles and more than 10 jail security officers accompanied Ampatuan to the hospital.
Reports from the Philippine National Police and the BJMP indicated that he had been vomiting blood, prompting jail officers to bring him to the hospital.
In a telephone interview, BJMP Director Rosendo Dial said Ampatuan had been suffering from a host of ailments, such as hypertension and diabetes.
Recovering
“Actually, he’s been ill for some time, but he was not confined in the hospital. He was just recovering in the BJMP infirmary, but this morning, he started vomiting blood,” he said.
Dial said Ampatuan also exhibited signs of fever and had difficulty breathing.
“So he was taken to the hospital for emergency checkup and laboratory exams,” he added.
Dial said the doctor in the infirmary had recommended Ampatuan’s transfer to the hospital. “Anyway, we have informed the court, the prosecution and the defense,” he said.
Ampatuan was later transferred to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Medical Center (formerly V. Luna Hospital) in Quezon City.
Senior Insp. 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.
A doctor from the Taguig hospital accompanied Ampatuan’s convoy as it headed off for AFPMC.
Ampatuan lawyers have asked a Quezon City court to allow him to be treated at the AFPMC.
No order
“It was advised that the patient be moved to a tertiary hospital for proper treatment,” their two-page urgent motion read.
The staff of Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Regional Trial Court Branch 221 received the urgent motion filed by Gregorio Narvasa and Joy Manaog at 4:40 p.m. on Friday.
But the court did not issue any order on the urgent motion Friday afternoon as the pleading will be discussed in next week’s hearing.
Ampatuan was admitted for checkup and observation at the AFPMC Friday afternoon even without a court order, the spokesperson of the military hospital said.
“Right now his condition is being observed to rule out any sickness or illness. He’s being checked. But he’ll stay longer for observation,” Cmdr. Jerome Ochoco, AFP Medical Center public affairs office chief, said in a phone interview.
“We have not settled whether he will be confined. We’re doing some tests right now,” he added.
Ochoco said they have not received any court order on Ampatuan’s transfer.
Several members of the Ampatuan clan, including Andal Sr. and his sons, are the principal suspects in the November 2009 massacre in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao.
The body of the reported 58th victim, photojournalist Reynaldo Momay, remains missing.
Missing witness
As this developed, a private prosecutor expressed alarm over a prosecution witness in the Maguindanao massacre who has been missing for a week.
Lawyer Nena Santos, counsel for Maguindanao Gov. Toto Mangundadatu, said that Esmael Amil Enog might have been murdered as his family has not heard from him.
“We received reports from the family that he last made contact with them over a week ago. Since we cannot locate him in Maguindanao, we are expecting the worst,” she said in a phone interview.
Enog is a former militiaman who testified in court that he drove 36 militiamen from Nov. 22 to 23 in two batches to Ampatuan, Maguindanao province.
Santos said Enog is not among the accused as he had no participation in the massacre.
She said that Enog’s brother, Rakim, who is one of the accused in the case, said the witness was nowhere to be found. With reports from Dona Z. Pazzibugan, Nathaniel R. Melican and Julie M. Aurelio
