Abalos chooses jail cell over hospital

MANILA, Philippines - Former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos refused to be hospitalized despite his poor health condition, his lawyer said.

Lawyer Brigido Dulay told The STAR that they were trying to convince his client to appeal to the Pasay City regional trial court to allow him to be hospitalized, but the former election official opted to stay in his detention room in Southern Police District headquarters in Taguig City.

“Ang problema matigas ulo ni chairman kaya wala kaming magawa,” Dulay said over the phone. (Problem is the chairman is stubborn, we can’t do anything).

Abalos, 77, was charged with two counts of electoral sabotage at the Pasay court and has been detained in SPD’s anti-criminality unit since his arrest last December. 

He and three other co-accused were charged for allegedly rigging the 2007 elections in South and North Cotabato in favor of the candidates of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Abalos had denied the charges.

Abalos reportedly suffers from difficulty in breathing and had been diagnosed as having low oxygen levels since his detention. 

His wife Cora said the former poll chief is not used to being confined. Before he was detained, she said, Abalos was a regular golfer and used to walk for several hours on their farm in Zambales.

In a separate interview, Abalos’s son Mandaluyong Mayor Benhur Abalos said his father had just recovered from chronic pulmonary disease and had weak lungs.

“I hope we can be allowed to post bail (for the former Comelec chief),” the mayor said.

Dulay said, instead of hospitalization, Abalos’s camp just stored an oxygen tank in his detention cell.

The former poll chief is also allowed to jog around the SPD compound for an hour every morning, to which he said he is “thankful.”