No St. Luke's check-up for Napoles

MANILA, Philippines - A Makati City court judge on Monday denied the request of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles to undergo medical examination, including a transvaginal ultrasound (TVS), for her ovarian tumor at the St. Luke's Medical Center at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

Instead of the posh hospital, Napoles will undergo a medical examination at the Philippine National Police's (PNP) General Hospital in Camp Crame on Wednesday.

In a two-page order, Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 150 Presiding Judge Elmo Alameda ruled that the PNP General Hospital has the facilities for the needed examinations on Napoles.

Alameda added that Napoles' personal doctors from the St. Luke's Medical Center may accompany her at the Camp Crame hospital during the examiniations. Alameda also said that the prosecution panel also did not object to Napoles' medical examiniation at Camp Crame.

Alameda also requested the director of the PNP Regional Office 4 to escort the businesswoman from her detention cell in Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna to Camp Crame in Quezon City and back immediately after her discharge from the hospital.

In the hearing of Napoles' urgent motion to conduct medical examination, Senior Inspector Michael Angelo Luna, medical officer of the Special Action Force assigned to look after Napoles, told the court that the hospital at Camp Crame has the faciity, equipment and the needed obstetrician and gynecologist for the TVS procedure.

Luna told the court that the hospital at Camp Crame can also perform the needed blood tests on Napoles such as the Prothrombin Time Bloodtest (to measure the time for plasma or the liquid portion of blood to clot) and the Partial Thromboplastin Time bloodtest (to determine if blood thinning therapy is effective).

Luna said that it would take only one day for all the needed tests to be done on Napoles, including the TVS.

Last February 18, Napoles, through her lawyer Fay Isaguirre Singson, asked the Makati RTC Branch 150 to allow her to be confined at the St. Luke's Hospital at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig to undergo a thorough and comprehensive medical examination for a possible ovarian tumor.