QC court lets Ampatuan Sr. remain in hospital

THE COURT handling the Maguindanao massacre case has allowed the primary suspect, former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., who is suffering from advanced liver cancer, to remain confined at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI).

In a two-page order issued on Wednesday, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 granted the petition of the 74-year-old Ampatuan patriarch after “taking into consideration the serious medical condition of the accused” and the lack of objections coming from the prosecution panel.

Reyes cited a June 26 medical certificate issued by Ampatuan’s physician at the NKTI, Dr. Jade Jamias, which stated that the accused was suffering from “advanced liver cancer with signs of decompensation” and that “prognosis [was] currently dim as pharmaco- logic intervention [was] limited.”

According to the doctor, “life expectancy for such [a] case is usually three to six months, but may be shorter if the liver function will continuously and progressively deteriorate.”

Ampatuan has been confined at the NKTI since June 5 upon the recommendation of doctors at the Quezon City Jail annex in Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig, where the respondents in the Maguindanao massacre are detained.

At the same time, Reyes also allowed Zaldy Ampatuan, one of the elder Ampatuan’s sons and coaccused, to undergo a “myocardial imaging test” at the Philippine Heart Center today and visit his father for two hours afterward.

This was after Zaldy underwent laboratory tests at the same hospital after suffering from chest pains, shortness of breath and extreme exhaustion.

Two other motions to visit the elderly Ampatuan at NKTI filed by his coaccused—son Andal Jr. and grandson Anwar Sajid who are also detained at the Quezon City Jail annex—have yet to be resolved.