It’s the Crame hospital for Napoles
JANET Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam, has been allowed to undergo a medical checkup tomorrow at the Philippine National Police General Hospital in Camp Crame to determine if she has an ovarian tumor.
Napoles had asked that she be examined at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City, but in a two-page order Judge Elmo Alameda of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150 said the court was convinced the “Camp Crame hospital has the facility for the requested examinations” after hearing the testimonies of four doctors presented during yesterday’s hearing.
“Having been informed by Dr. Angelo Michael V. Luna that Camp Crame hospital has the facility for the requested examinations, the court deems it proper that the examinations be done at the said hospital and not at St. Luke’s Medical Center,” the order released yesterday afternoon said.
Alameda said that if allowed by the rules of the Camp Crame hospital, Napoles’ personal doctors from St. Luke’s may be present and may be allowed to observe the actual medical exams for an ovarian tumor, such as a transvaginal ultrasound and blood tests prothrombin time and partial thromboplastin time.
Napoles’ camp had filed a motion in court asking for the checkup because she had been suffering from an “increasing pattern of abdominal pain, continuous menstrual bleeding since December 2013, drastic weight loss and excruciating pain.” She also has diabetes, the motion added.
Provide her security
The court directed the Region IV-A police director to provide an adequate number of security personnel to escort Napoles to the Camp Crame hospital in Quezon City on Feb. 26.
Alameda directed the PNP to bring Napoles back to her detention bungalow in Fort Sto. Domingo, Sta. Rosa City, Laguna province, upon her discharge from the Crame hospital.
According to the motion filed by the Napoles camp, she was rushed on Oct. 24 to Southern Luzon Hospital and Medical Center where she underwent a CT scan following severe abdominal pain and “profuse menstrual bleeding for nine consecutive days.”
After Napoles’ endocrinologist at St. Luke’s, Dr. Michael Lim Villa, said that the CT scan showed an ovarian tumor, her lawyers asked the court to allow a checkup at St. Luke’s and to place her under hospital arrest if necessary.
But Luna said the hospital at Camp Crame had all the equipment and facilities needed for the ultrasound and the two blood tests recommended by Napoles’ doctors. In fact, Luna added, “last December, we made blood tests on Mrs. Napoles and sent two specimens to St. Luke’s and Camp Crame [hospital], and the results were almost similar.”
Beggars can’t choose
After the testimony of Dr. Ramon Elazegui of Southern Luzon Hospital, Dr. Elsie P. Badillo Pascua and Villa of St. Luke’s, the defense agreed to have Napoles examined at the Crame hospital.
“At this point, beggars can’t be choosers, right? What we really want... is for Mrs. Napoles to be checked. That’s the bottom line,” defense lawyer Bruce Rivera said in an interview with reporters after the hearing.
Napoles is facing serious illegal detention charges along with her brother for allegedly illegally holding Benhur Luy, one of the whistleblowers in the P10-billion pork barrel scam.