Zaldy hospitalization recommended

MANILA, Philippines – A government doctor has recommended that former ARMM Zaldy Ampatuan be brought to a hospital immediately for medical examinations.

In a July 12 memorandum, Chief Inspector Agnes Aglipay, head of the Health Service Unit of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology-National Capital Region, recommended that Ampatuan must undergo diagnostics in a "hospital setting."

Aglipay said the 43-year-old murder suspect needs to "be brought to the nearest government hospital on an outpatient basis or depending on the recommendation of the attending physicians."

Ampatuan is among the 196 accused in the multiple murder case pending before the court in connection with the gruesome murder of 58 people in Maguindanao last Nov. 23, 2009.

According to Aglipay, the former ARMM governor's private doctors are saying he has "coronary heart diseases and poorly controlled Diabetes Mellitus that needs immediate evaluation and prompt treatment."

"The accused had occasional episodes of shortness of breath that were temporarily relieved by oxygen installation and nebulation," Aglipay said.

Also attached in Camus's letter to Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes were the recommendations of Ampatuan's private doctors.

Dr. Reynaldo Rosales, his endocrinologist at St. Luke's Medical Center-Global City, said Ampatuan is a known diabetic since 2001.

He said the murder suspect "was started on hypoglycemic agents and at present on combination oral and insulin therapy."

"At present, he complains of frequent thirst and urination at least for to five times at night, blurring of vision, lower extremity pain and numbness," Rosales said.

Dr. Maita Senadrin, Ampatuan's cardiologist, said the former ARMM governor has been hypertensive for 10 years.

"He was also diagnosed to have fatty liver and previous gastroscopy showed him affected with Helico bacter pylori," Senadrin.

"He had been a previous smoker, with family history of parents having diabetes and hypertension... having been diagnosed at childhood to have congenital heart diseases but was asymptomatic in his 20s," the private doctor said.

Ampatuan had said that he is willing to turn state witness in the Maguindanao massacre case to help the government prove that his own father, Andal Ampatuan Sr., and brother Andal Jr. masterminded the gruesome killings.

The suspended regional governor had also been making several allegations of corruption and election cheating against his former political ally, former president Gloria Macagapal Arroyo.

President Benigno Aquino III, meanwhile, assured relatives of the massacre victims during a meeting yesterday in Malacañang that the government is not mulling a witness deal with the Ampatuan.

The assurance came after reports that some members of the Aquino administration are pushing to turn Ampatuan into a state witness.