Prosecution opposes Zaldy Ampatuan hospital arrest

MANILA, Philippines—A private prosecutor in the Maguindanao massacre case on Saturday said he would oppose moves to have former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan put under hospital arrest.

Lawyer Harry Roque said he would insist that a “reputable” government doctor conduct the examination on Ampatuan, who is suffering from diabetes and a heart ailment, and that the tests be done at the maximum security prison compound at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig.

“I’m a diabetic myself. In fact, my situation is worse because I’m insulin-dependent but I’ve never been hospitalized for my tests,” Roque said in an interview.

Chief Inspector Agnes Aglipay, the head of the Health Service Unit of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology-National Capital Region, earlier recommended that Ampatuan undergo several medical exams in “a hospital setting.”

She said Ampatuan’s private doctors had found out that he had “coronary heart disease and poorly controlled diabetes mellitus that needs immediate evaluation and prompt treatment.”

But Roque said that a reputable government doctor should conduct the tests and not someone from BJMP, which is under Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo. Roque had earlier criticized Robredo for supposedly supporting Ampatuan’s bid to become a government witness.

“The court procedure here is for the tribunal to appoint a government doctor to do the tests. We will insist that a doctor of good reputation from the Philippine General Hospital or other government hospitals examine him first and not Robredo’s doctor,” Roque said.

He said they would also insist that Ampatuan be arraigned first if Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes allows him to be brought to the hospital.

“That is a continuing motion from the prosecution. We have been insisting that he should now be arraigned,” Roque said, adding that Ampatuan remains a flight risk.

In her report to the court, Aglipay noted that doctor Reynaldo Rosales, Ampatuan’s endocrinologist at St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City, had diagnosed the ex-governor as a diabetic since 2001 and “was started on hypoglycemic agents and at present on combination oral and insulin therapy.”

“At present, he complains of frequent thirst and urination at least four to five times at night, blurring of vision, lower extremity pain and numbness,” Rosales said.

But it appeared in the recommendation that Ampatuan’s last consultation with Rosales was in 2009.

Dr. Maita Senadrin, Ampatuan’s cardiologist, said he has been hypertensive for 10 years and was “also diagnosed to have fatty liver.”

Senadrin also described her patient as “a previous smoker, with a family history of parents having diabetes and hypertension.”

She said he was diagnosed as a child “to have congenital heart diseases, but was asymptomatic in his 20s.”

She recommended that Ampatuan undergo the following tests: 12-lead ECG; two-dimensional echocardiography; 24-hour Holter monitoring; carotid duplex scan; peripheral arterial and venous duplex scan; endothelial function test; and complete blood chemistry including high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and myocardial perfusion imaging.