Ex-Senator Maceda on life support following surgery

FORMER Sen. Ernesto Maceda remained on life support as of late yesterday afternoon, according to his son Edmond, who admitted the “chances are very slim” his father would recover.

“We’re just waiting for our eldest brother to arrive before the doctors check him one last time and turn off the machine,” Edmond Maceda said.

The 81-year-old Maceda first served as a senator during the Marcos administration from 1971 to 1972. He won a Senate seat again in 1987 after Ferdinand Marcos was ousted, serving up to 1998.

During the Ramos administration, he was Senate president from 1996 to 1998. From 1998 to 2001 he was Philippine ambassador to the United States.

Family spokesperson Jimmy Policarpio in a radio interview on Monday said Maceda underwent gall bladder surgery last week. He had undergone heart bypass surgery in 1992.

Maceda is at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City.

“He’s in critical condition and is receiving medical care or scientific care. But certainly, he’s still around,” said his other son and namesake Ernesto Maceda Jr., president of the Universidad de Manila.

In a phone interview, Ernesto Jr. said their family would make an announcement on Monday night.

He said his father had been confined for “a few days after undergoing an operation two or three days ago.”

He added his father had been “in and out of the hospital” and finally opted to undergo surgery because of the “pain and discomfort.”

“His condition is not in a good way. Right now he’s hooked up to a machine… and that’s not good,” Ernesto Jr. added.