Prosecutors agree to hospital confinement of Ampatuan during trial

Former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. INQUIRER PHOTO

The public prosecutors in the Maguindanao massacre case did not object to the hospital confinement of principal accused and clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr., who has been diagnosed with liver cancer, at the government-run National Kidney and Transplant Institute.

“For humanitarian consideration, the prosecution concedes that (Ampatuan’s) confinement at the said medical facility be continued until such time that his attending physician makes a recommendation that he is medically fit to return to the BJMP detention facility,” state lawyers said in a comment filed in court on Monday.

The prosecution also asked the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 to require Ampatuan, through his counsel, to submit updated medical bulletins and the results of all laboratory tests conducted during his confinement.

Ampatuan, 74, was brought to NKTI on June 5 after complaining of breathing difficulty and an increase in abdominal girth.

His lawyer, Salvador Panelo, filed an urgent motion to allow Ampatuan to stay at NKTI, saying that his life was already at a “terminal stage.”

Ampatuan, a former Maguindanao governor, is one of the principal accused in the Nov. 23, 2009, massacre of 58 people, including 32 media workers.

The victims were among the convoy that would file the candidacy for Maguindanao governor of then Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu. SM