BJMP: Massacre suspect Zaldy Ampatuan in stable condition after hospitalization

MANILA, Philippines — Former regional governor Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, one of the principal suspects in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, is now in stable condition after he was rushed to the hospital earlier this week.

Chief Inspector Xavier Solda, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology spokesperson, said Ampatuan was rushed to a hospital Monday afternoon due to “cardiovascular disease infarction secondary to cardiac dysrhythmia.”

According to website medicalnewstoday, heart arrhythmia is also known as cardiac dysrhythmia or irregular heartbeat.

Citing the latest medical bulletin, Solda said that Ampatuan “is in a stable condition now.”

The BJMP spokesperson said that Ampatuan remains in the hospital.

A STAR report said that Ampatuan was confined at the Philippine Heart Center in November 2016. He was diagnosed with cardiovascular infarction, hypoglycemia secondary to oral hypoglycemia agents and congestive heart failure.

Ampatuan massacre

A total of 58 people, 32 of them journalists, were killed in the massacre on November 23, 2009. 

They were on their way to a local Commission on Elections office to witness the filing of the certificate of candidacy for then-Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu when they were flagged and killed by gunmen in Ampatuan town.

READ: As Ampatuan case nears end, massacre victims' kin forge on with tempered hope

Members of the Ampatuan clan, political rivals of the Mangudadatus, were accused of ordering the killing.

Andal “Datu Unsay” Ampatuan Jr. is the primary accused in the case pending before the sala of Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221.

Nine years since the gruesome massacre, the Deparment of Justice said last August that the Ampatuan massacre is at its final stage.