MANILA, Philippines—Claiming that his wounds have been bleeding recently, road rage suspect Jason Ivler asked anew a Quezon City court to allow him to seek medical treatment.
In an eight-page pleading, the defense appealed to the Regional Trial Court Branch (RTC) 84 to immediately order his confinement for the treatment of his wounds and his colostomy.
Ivler, who is detained at the Metro Manila District Jail, said his wounds—sustained in a 2010 shootout with lawmen—have been bleeding profusely for over a month now.
“The Bicutan Detention Facility and its medial staff are however not properly equipped to attend to the accused’s medical needs,” read the urgent motion for confinement.
This would be the second urgent motion for medical confinement that Ivler has filed with the courts.
Ivler has been seeking court permission to undergo surgery to reverse his colostomy, which allows him to defecate through a bag and not his anus.
The colostomy was a result of wounds he sustained in the firefight with lawmen out to arrest him at his mother’s house in January 2010.
Ivler is charged with murder for allegedly shooting dead Renato Victor Ebarle Jr., son of a former Palace official, in a road rage incident on Santolan Road, Qeuzon City on November 18, 2009.
Judge Luisito Cortez of RTC Branch 84 is the third judge to handle the murder case against Ivler.
The first motion for medical confinement was filed before Judge Alexander Balut of RTC Branch 76 on June 11, 2010, but Balut was unable to resolve this.
Under the watch of Judge Bayani Vargas of RTC Branch 219, the defense filed an urgent motion to resolve the request.
Vargas allowed Ivler to be treated at the East Avenue Medical Center.
But the defense claimed that only a “superficial examination” was done and that his wounds were not actually treated.
Vargas, according to Ivler’s lawyers, had “always insisted that the prosecution needed to first finish the testimony of eyewitnesses before the medical confinement is allowed.”
This deferment has resulted in the accused’s worsening condition, the defense said.
“There is simply no law allowing a party to defer the hospitalization of another party for this reason alone,” the motion said.
Ivler’s lawyers said their client’s right to liberty is restricted, being a detention prisoner, but this should not affect his right to life and property, and to get medical treatment.
“The baseless objections by the prosecution and Judge Vargas’s refusal to allow the accused to immediately undergo treatment and the reversal of his colostomy would be tantamount to torture and cruelty, and to a degrading and inhuman punishment against the accused who, until now, should enjoy the constitutional presumption of innocence.”
Both Balut and Vargas inhibited themselves from the case following the requests of either parties, who cited alleged bias on the part of the court.