Court defers action on Zaldy Ampatuan petition for hospital stay

MANILA, Philippines – It looks like suspended Governor Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) may have to return to jail after a lower court deferred action on his petition to be transferred to a hospital due to high blood pressure and diabetes.

Instead Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City regional trial court Branch 221, in a one-page order, told the Ampatuan camp to submit the original  and duly notarized clinical abstract, which states his condition and need for immediate medication and confinement.

“In the meantime, appropriate action on accused request shall be held in abeyance pending compliant,” Reyes said.

Regional State Prosecutor Peter Medalle, in a phone interview with INQUIRER.net, said the Reyes’ order meant that the suspended governor must be returned to his cell.

Ampatuan had asked the court that he be allowed confinement at the Philippine Heart Center where he has been staying since early Wednesday.

“They want confinement but the court has not acted on it until they have complied with the order,” said Medalle.

Medalle said they have opposed Ampatuan’s request for confinement because he was a “flight risk” and that “if he escaped, all the efforts of the government to arrest and prosecute him for 57 counts of murder will be wasted.”

“We have already sent someone to file our opposition…He has been interviewed several times, there is no indication that he has a life threatening illness,” Medalle said.

Medalle said that Zaldy Ampatuan has not been arraigned. “If an accused has not yet been arraigned, the court has not acquired jurisdiction over the person, thus, he cannot be tried in absentia.”

Zaldy Ampatuan is one of the principal accused in the death of 57 people last Nov. 23, 2009 in Maguindanao. His lawyers requested that he undergo medical check-up outside Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig because he was suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes.