Zaldy Ampatuan back in Camp Bagong Diwa jail

MANILA, Philippines – Zaldy Ampatuan, suspended governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), is back in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City Friday, a jail official said.

Ampatuan, who is being attended to by four nurses, is in the infirmary where he will probably stay for 24 hours, said Chief Inspector Bernardo Camus, the jail warden at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).

Ampatuan, who came from the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City where he was confined last July 20 due to hypertension and diabetes, was transferred back to his cell amid the furor resulting from his confinement.

A principal suspect in the murders of 57 people in Maguindanao, including 32 journalists, in 2009, Ampatuan petitioned the Quezon City court trying his case that he be allowed to stay in the hospital. Although the court allowed him to be treated as an out-patient, Ampatuan decided to put himself in the PHC, causing outrage from the families of the victims of what is now known as the Maguindanao massacre.

The BJMP gate was closed to the public immediately after the two ambulances, one of which carried Ampatuan, arrived at around 1:30 p.m. BJMP mobiles entered a few minutes after.