Zaldy Ampatuan seeks medical as diabetic

Former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan, who is reportedly planning to turn state witness against his father and brother, wants to undergo medical examinations at the St. Luke’s Hospital.

In an “urgent motion” asking the special court hearing the Maguindanao massacre, lawyer Redemberto Villanueva, Ampatuan’s counsel, said his client’s blood pressure and blood sugar have been “fluctuating” in the last two weeks. Villanueva said his client was suffering from diabetes.

“He had difficulty breathing. His blood pressure and blood sugar fluctuated and this has been going on for the last two weeks,” Villanueva said during a break at the trial of the case yesterday in Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig.

“There are four other prisoners in his cell so he feels cramped. And he also has to often go to the infirmary, which is on the ground floor, so he has to go up and down the prison building,” he added.

But the prosecution insisted that Ampatuan be arraigned first before he is allowed to leave the maximum security prison in Camp Bagong Diwa. Prosecutors insist that Ampatuan was a flight risk.

The former governor has yet to be arraigned for the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao that left 57 people, 31 of them media practitioners.

Prosecutor Grace Ruiz, who is herself a diabetic, also noted during the hearing that the defense failed to divulge if Ampatuan’s treatment would “require confinement” and for how many days.

“Herself being a diabetic, counsel personally knows that this (medical exam) could be done as an outpatient,” said Ruiz, who suffered a fainting spell during a break at the trial on Wednesday morning.

She also noted that the tests that Ampatuan supposedly needed—including ultrasound, nuclear imaging test, electromyography (EMG)—would need a day or days or preparation.