Hospital to Ivler lawyers: Leave transfer up to court

MANILA, Philippines - The Quirino Memorial Medical Center (QMMC) said it will leave the issue of murder suspect Jason Ivler’s transfer to a detention facility to the court, even as Ivler’s lawyers warned the hospital against discharging him.

QMMC’s Dr. Romeo Abary said Ivler is still “an accused in a case involving a non-bailable offense” and that he is “under the court’s jurisdiction.”

“If and when the court orders us to release your client, we will readily abide,” Abary said in a March 16 letter to Ivler’s lawyers. “Whether or not your client’s condition warrants his continued stay at our hospital is a legal and factual issue that the court has to resolve.”

The doctor’s letter was in response to a March 5 letter sent by Ivler’s lawyers – Edwardson Ong, Priscila Marie Abante and Anthony Leonard Topacio.

Ivler’s lawyers told QMMC that “recommending any measure that would threaten the health and safety of the accused and impede his full recovery may render you vulnerable to criminal and civil liability.”

They said Ivler “is not only suffering from internal gunshot wounds but is also dealing with damaged intestines, which prompted colostomy.”

Also in their letter, Ivler’s lawyers demanded details of the procedures in removing his colostomy and restoring his internal organs and even asked about the qualification of the medical staff performing the procedures.

Abary, however, refused to give in and told the lawyers to “file your motion in court in order to ferret out the truth about your client’s condition.”

Copies of the letter were submitted to the court hearing the murder case against Ivler along with Abary’s March 15 medical bulletin saying that the suspect was already able to walk without support and that his colostomy was functioning well.

Ivler – who is facing murder charges for allegedly killing Renato Victor Ebarle Jr. during a road rage incident on Nov. 18, 2009 – was injured after he shot it out with arresting National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents on Jan. 18. He underwent surgeries and has since been confined at QMMC.

The murder suspect’s continued stay at the hospital has been questioned by the prosecution, which has recently asked the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 76 to transfer him to the NBI detention facility. 

The court has issued a subpoena requiring Dr. Enrico Ragaza of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute to appear at a hearing today and speak about his medical opinion on Ivler’s condition.

Ragaza has submitted a certificate to the court that the suspect’s gunshot wounds could be attended to even without his continued stay at QMMC.

This became the basis of the Department of Justice prosecutors in filing an omnibus motion asking for Ivler’s transfer from his hospital room to the NBI detention facility. – Reinir Padua