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Image of a gavel at the Sandiganbayan courtroom. (Courtesy: Sandiganbayan)Image of a gavel at the Sandiganbayan courtroom. (Courtesy: Sandiganbayan)
The former House Speaker is allowed to stay at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center until his motion for hospital confinement due to heart and mental health-related illnesses is resolved, the Sandiganbayan on Thursday said.
This as the court directed the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology to take custody of Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez for plunder allegations.
“The confinement of the former Speaker in Cardinal Santos will remain until further orders from the court,” Sandiganbayan Third Division Clerk of Court Dennis Pulma said.
“He will stay there for the meantime,” he added.
According to his attending physician, Dr. Rosalio Torres, a staff of Romualdez informed him that the former Speaker complained of chest pains around 9 a.m. on Monday.
Torres testified before the Sandiganbayan that Romualdez should remain under hospital detention because the lawmaker was at “high risk of possible heart attack.”
“In case of emergency, he would have an hour (to receive treatment). We believe he may not be afforded that one hour (if he is transferred from the hospital),” he said.
Torres said the former Speaker suffered from unstable angina with underlying coronary disease, which he described as an impending heart attack.
The doctor who admitted Romualdez, Dr. Kurt Allen Sibayan, said the former Speaker remained at high risk of a heart attack even as he acknowledged it was not an emergency case.
Romualdez was turned over to the custody of the BJMP from the Philippine National Police at past 4 p.m. yesterday even as he remained confined at Cardinal Santos.
“Rep. Romualdez will be accorded the same treatment and privileges as other persons deprived of liberty, with no VIP or special treatment,” BJMP spokesperson Supt. Jayrex Bustinera said in a statement.
As this developed, House prosecution adviser and spokesperson Ace Barbers said Romualdez appeared noticeably frail and had lost considerable weight even before his hospital confinement.
“Just a week ago, we had a chance to talk. The first thing I told him was that he lost a lot of weight… He’s really very weak,” Barbers said in a television interview.
“Speaker Martin really has a lot of health issues. You can see the difference in his appearance now compared to how he looked, say, six months ago,” he added.
In their manifestation and urgent motion for hospital detention, the lawyers of the ex-Speaker said he is suffering from hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease; unstable angina; coronary artery disease; s/p pci (post percutaneous coronary intervention); cerebrovascular ischemic disease; type 2 diabetes mellitus; hypertension; dyslipidemia; and primary hypothyroidism.
“(The accused) has a documented cardiac history and has remained under continuing care for that condition,” read the manifestation.
His lawyers proposed a court-supervised arrangement that would include round-the-clock guards, visitor restrictions, and periodic medical certificates. — Maricel Cruz
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