A Quezon City Regional Trial Court has approved the requested transfer of 2009 Maguindanao Massacre top suspect, Datu Zaldy Unsay Ampatuan, to the Philippine Heart Center.
Ampatuan, former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, has requested the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 to transfer him to the PHC from Taguig-Pateros District Hospital due to what he called his congestive heart failure.
Acting on the request, the court said it allowed Ampatuan’s transfer because the PHC had the complete set of equipment for tests as well as previous records of his confinement.
“The court deems it proper to grant the relief being prayed for in the Motion that [Ampatuan] be transferred to the Philippine Heart Center where he has his medical records,” the court said.
Ampatuan had complained of shortness of breath, dizziness, and increase in blood pressure while in jail, which prompted jail authorities to bring him to the Taguig-Pateros District Hospital, where he was diagnosed with cardiovascular infarction, hypoglycemia secondary to oral hypoglycemia agents and congestive heart failure.
Medical sources said myocardial infarction, also known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to a part of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle.
The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may travel into the shoulder, arm, back, neck, or jaw.
Jail sources said Ampatuan had asked that he be transferred to the PHC in Quezon City for examination and recovery because he said it had “a complete set of equipment for tests” and “the records of his confinement in the past years.”
The court granted his motion, but denied his alternative request to be brought to St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City should he be denied admission at the PHC.
Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 also ordered the jail warden of Camp Bagong Diwa, where Ampatuan is jailed, to return the murder defendant to the detention facility after he completes medical examinations and confinement as recommended by his doctor.
Ampatuan’s lawyers were also ordered to submit to the court the result of his medical examinations and/or medical abstract within 48 hours of receipt.
Last year, the court allowed Ampatuan to attend his daughter’s wedding due to “humanitarian considerations.”
Ampatuan is facing murder charges in connection with the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre of 58 people, most of whom were journalists, who were on their way to cover the filing of the certificate of candidacy of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu.
