Two weeks after a convicted drug lord was rushed to a leading hospital in Pasig City, another high-profile inmate—the subject of a Facebook page accusing prison officials of giving him special treatment—was allowed to get medical services outside New Bilibid Prison (NBP).
Herbert “Ampang” Colangco, a convicted robbery gang leader who has been serving time at the maximum security compound since 2009, was rushed to Asian Hospital and Medical Center (AHMC) in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, around 6 p.m. Tuesday due to urinary tract infection.
Colangco had been tagged in several bank robberies in Metro Manila since the early 2000s. Police said the Colango gang had also worked together with other notorious crime syndicates like the Waray-Waray and Ozamis robbery groups.
NBP Supt. Fajardo Lansangan said he received an “emergency referral” from the NBP hospital to transfer Colangco to the private hospital on Tuesday afternoon, after the NBP doctors conferred with Colangco’s personal physicians.
Colangco remained confined at AHMC as of press time Wednesday, Lansangan told the Inquirer.
Weeks before his hospitalization, the convict has been a recurring subject on a Facebook page called “Bilibid Atin Ito,” which speaks of alleged corrupt practices and mismanagement at the NBP.
One post read: “They tolerate Ampang Colangco constructing his own big house inside the prison compound (sic), his own desktop computer with WiFi connection, his own air-conditioning system, his own cook and bodyguards, and his own golf carts, his own line of water connection while ordinary inmates fetch their water in a long lane just to get one gallon to spend for the whole day.”
The post alleged that Colangco had been granted such perks because he donated P1.2 million to the NBP hospital last year.
It also noted that Colangco had been sponsoring regular weekend concerts called the “Chairman Colanggo Musical Charity Show” at the maximum security compound.
When told of the Facebook page, Lansangan confirmed the Colangco-sponsored concerts, saying they were part of the inmates’ “reformation” and “extracurricular activities.” “If they have talents, they use them to uplift their fellow inmates,” he stressed.
But Lansangan denied that Colangco had made any donation to the NBP hospital. “The funds for hospital renovations, medicines, are all allocated by BuCor (Bureau of Corrections). Public biddings are held for it,” he stressed
He said the most recent hospital renovation, involving a building for tuberculosis patients, was undertaken through a memorandum of agreement between the BuCor and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Lansangan also denied that Colangco had been allowed to have his own house inside the maximum security compound. “Not one inmate has a house here. Perhaps what they see are the reformation centers, where inmates can hold activities”.
‘We find ways’
“Call it VIP treatment if it’s the government spending for them,” he said. ‘’We are handling 22,000 inmates and finding ways to rehabilitate them.”
“All we know is that our conscience is clear. We are doing our jobs,” he added.
Colangco’s hospitalization followed that of convicted drug lord Amin Buratong, the man behind the so-called “shabu tiangge” (flea market) in Pasig City that was already thriving in the mid-2000s when the police conducted raids.
Buratong was allowed to be brought to Medical City, also in Pasig, on May 13 due to a ‘’recurring coronary artery disease” and a liver ailment, among other health problems.
NBP policy
Buratong stayed in the hospital for four days and underwent angioplasty, Lansangan said in an earlier interview.
The NPB official then clarified that when inmates are brought to private hospitals, it would be on their personal expense. “We allow them to be treated outside if the NBP hospital doctors have recommended it and expressed that they cannot handle the treatment themselves,” he then said.
Letting them them stay in private hospitals could not be considered “special treatment,” he said. “How can it be special treatment when the person is really sick? The [NBP] hospital cannot handle it. If something happens to him, we will also get the blame.”
“Our policy states that the inmate should be brought to a government hospital, but they have an option to choose a private hospital if they have the financial capacity,” Lansangan explained.