Court allows check-up for Zaldy, but hospital refuses

MANILA, Philippines - The court hearing the “Maguidanao massacre” multiple murder case has allowed suspect Zaldy Ampatuan to undergo a medical check-up at a private hospital in Taguig City, but the hospital refused to admit the former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor due to “security risks.”

In an order last Friday, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Regional Trial Court Branch 221 “partially granted” the hospitalization and ordered Quezon City Jail Annex warden Senior Inspector Edgar Camus to bring Ampatuan to St. Luke’s Medical Center in Global City as an outpatient.

Ampatuan’s lawyer, Redemberto Villanueva, told the court yesterday that the hospital had denied his client because of his “recent exposés.” Villanueva said the hospital said it was its “right as a private hospital to do so” if it involved “security risks.”

Government doctors earlier recommended that Ampatuan be checked and treated in a “hospital setting” for coronary heart disease and poorly controlled diabetes mellitus.