After leaving the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) before Christmas for confinement at the Makati Medical Center, convicted murderer ex-Rep. Jose Villarosa of Mindoro Occidental may spend New Year’s Eve in another private hospital with his family.
The Department of Justice has allowed Villarosa, husband of President Arroyo‘s close ally, House Deputy Majority Leader Amelita Villarosa, to leave the NBP in Muntinlupa City to undergo a medical check-up at the St. Luke’s Hospital in Quezon City.
Justice Undersecretary Fidel Exconde confirmed that permission was indeed granted to Villarosa by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez.
“That hospital has better equipment for treatment,” said Exconde. Villarosa will return to the NBP after the medical check-up for hypertension.
The deputy majority leader headed the contingent of more than 40 lawmakers who accompanied President Arroyo in her recent trip to Spain and the United Kingdom. Critics called the congressional trip a junket.
Villarosa was also the one who claimed that the President’s party, the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino, was the source of the cash ranging from P200,000 to P500,000 distributed in brown paper bags to lawmakers at Malacañang at the height of this year’s effort to impeach the President.
The Quezon City Regional Court Branch 81 sentenced Villarosa’s husband to death on March 1, 2006 for the murders of brothers Michael and Paul Quintos, sons of former congressman Ricardo Quintos, a political rival of the convicted lawmaker.
The abolition of the death penalty commuted Villarosa’s death sentence to life imprisonment. The same penalty was meted out on Josue Ungsod, Manolito Matricio, Mario Tobias, Ruben Balaguer and Gelito Bautista, also known as the “Mamburao 6” and alleged members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
Villarosa and his co-accused were arrested by police on the strength of the testimony of Eduardo Hermoso, who served as one of the lookouts and who was arrested by police two weeks after the killings. Hermoso pinpointed Villarosa as the mastermind.
Villarosa was brought to the Makati Medical Center last Dec. 19 from his cell at the NBP allegedly due to high blood pressure and pneumonia.