Deny to death

The Senate committee on economic affairs chaired by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago resumed yesterday the inquiry into the alleged bid rigging cases of Philippine government road projects that were investigated by the World Bank. As previously announced, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo did not appear at the Senate hearing upon medical advice by personal physicians led by Dr. Antonio Sibulo. The First Gentleman was “invited” to the Senate inquiry after he was among those implicated in the supposedly “confidential” WB report.

Instead of their controversial patient, it was Dr. Sibulo, director of the Heart Institute of St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City, who appeared at the Senate hearing yesterday along with the chief legal counsel of the First Gentleman, Ruy Rondain. Dr. Sibulo reiterated to the Senators it might be too stressful and fatal for his patient to answer these allegations considering his medical condition.

The First Gentleman, who underwent open-heart surgery for dissecting aneurysm in April 9, 2007 at St. Luke’s, is still undergoing regular stress therapy supervised by Dr. Sibulo at the same hospital Tuesdays and Thursdays. Dr. Sibulo related to the Senators that his patient undergoes regular stress tests that include a 30-minute treadmill exercise.

The doctor was kind enough to indulge the Senators with “Medicine 101” when Sen. Rodolfo Biazon tried to squeeze information from him about rather personal medical details of his controversial patient. Unlike the WB, Dr. Sibulo did not invoke “confidentiality” of his patient’s medical record during his Senate testimony.

Biazon cited his own personal knowledge of how the levels of treadmill stress test could be comparably measured with certain physical activities like brisk walking or hiking or playing tennis. The treadmill is an exercise equipment to determine the patient’s heart capacity to absorb or withstand physical exertion.

Biazon tried to lead the doctor into saying the different levels of “stress” tests would show his patient’s medical condition is in no danger by testifying at the Senate. This was after the chief legal counsel of the First Gentleman was quoted as saying in media that Dr. Sibulo allows his patient to play golf but advised against testifying before the Senate.

Describing his patient as “too emotional” to succumb to dangerous level of stress, Dr. Sibulo impressed upon the Senators that it would be too risky to compare such stress condition to the physical exertion that he gets in playing golf to the emotional stress if he testifies at the Senate.

Dr. Sibulo explained Arroyo’s present health status might worsen if he will not avoid “mentally stressful” activities. He offered as an acceptable mode for his patient a written deposition where there will be no “face to face” confrontation with the Senators who would interrogate him. Such “mental stimulus,” the doctor warned, could be a compounding situation to the cardiovascular problem of his patient. The risk for a recurrent dissecting aneurysm of his patient, he admitted, is 20 percent annually and survival among this kind of cases is only 50 percent in 5 years.

Despite treading on this legally-protected “confidentiality” of medical record of the patient, Biazon asked matters that should be personal knowledge already of the First Gentleman. He asked the doctor whether his patient bets on his golf games which he says could add to the stress. It was no wonder why the feisty Miriam failed to control her much vaunted sharp-tongue when she finally cut down Biazon at the next round of his questions yesterday to the other witnesses.

Even opposition Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, a known arch critic of the First Gentleman, was Christian enough to relent by not forcing the presidential spouse to appear at the Senate hearing. Lacson noted the First Gentleman is a “walking time bomb” to describe the latter’s medical condition even after more than two years since the heart surgery.

Also a bitter critic of the First Gentleman, opposition Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano expressed his willingness to accept a compromise arrangement. Supported by his “Ate” Sen. Pia Cayetano, Alan is willing to allow the presidential spouse to appear via remote arrangement through the Webcam to personally answer the Senators. But both insisted a medical excuse should not be a security blanket for whatever liability the First Gentleman must face and answer.

At the end of the Senate hearing, however, the presiding Senator ruled that a written deposition from the First Gentleman would be enough. While it may be the safest mode for him, medically speaking, such written deposition is a high legal risk that the First Gentleman would have to take and assume.

A blanket denial of his alleged participation in the alleged collusion among blacklisted Filipino contractors for public bidding in WB-funded projects, legally speaking, is a weak defense of one’s innocence.

Himself a lawyer by profession, the First Gentleman branded the WB report allegations against him as mere hearsay and rumors that are not backed by solid evidence. He denounced as “outrageous” specifically the WB report about a Japanese contractor who purportedly linked him to bribery. Interviewed by reporters after his regular therapy at St. Luke’s, the First Gentleman questioned the logic why would he personally meet with the Japanese contractor to talk about bribes.

Mr. Arroyo is walking on dangerous grounds here by going legalistic in professing his innocence. The case has taken a political life of its own that will never die like a zombie. He can deny them until he turns blue but still no one will believe it. But he has survived past scandals where he was also dragged into, including the alleged secret bank accounts he supposedly maintained in Germany.

This was exposed by then Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano during the previous Congress when the First Gentleman flew all the way to Germany along with several other House leaders and proved he has no such bank account there. From hindsight, the First Gentleman blamed Alan for causing so much stress to his health. He surmised this contributed a lot to his near fatal heart attack in 2007. “They want to kill me but I don’t want to die yet,” Mr. Arroyo quipped. He was smiling all right when he said it. But he was visibly hurting inside. That’s the unseen stress that kills.