Teves recuperating after undergoing appendectomy at PGH

Arnolfo Teves Jr. —Marianne Bermudez

MANILA, Philippines — Expelled lawmaker Arnolfo Teves Jr. is recovering at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) following surgery to remove his appendix, his lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said on Wednesday.

“He is okay, he is recuperating well, and of course, as with any postoperative recuperation, what we’re monitoring are possible complications such as infection. But the operation early this morning was successful,” Topacio told reporters, referring to the laparoscopic appendectomy performed on Teves.

According to Topacio, the former lawmaker was brought out of detention from the Metro Manila District Jail-Annex 2 in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, and taken to a nearby public hospital early Tuesday morning. This was after he complained of intense abdominal pain the night before. Doctors later recommended that he undergo a “major surgery” procedure at St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City.

READ: Teves ‘won’t evade justice regardless of excuses,’ DILG’s Remulla vows

Topacio, however, said his client was eventually cleared for transfer to PGH around midnight on Wednesday.

Wake-up call

In a statement, the lawyer criticized the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), saying the incident should serve as a “wake-up call” regarding its alleged failure to promptly respond to the medical needs of prisoners.

“If it took several hours for a high-profile prisoner such as Rep. Teves to be given medical attention, we shudder at how the BJMP will treat ordinary detainees,” Topacio said.

“It also shows how a detained person—who, after all, is presumed innocent—is deprived of his right to seek his own choice of treatment and medical professionals to attend to him, by illogical and archaic rules biased against private hospitals,” he added.

Teves faces multiple criminal charges for allegedly masterminding the assassination of his political rival, former Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo, in a brazen daytime attack that left nine others dead in March 2023.

He also stands accused in a separate case before a Manila court of the killings of three individuals between March and June 2019, on top of another case for illegal possession of firearms and explosives after high-powered weapons and ammunition were recovered from his family’s compound.

After nearly two years of evading arrest and seeking refuge in Timor-Leste, Teves was deported to Manila on May 29 this year. /cb