AN ordinary patient room at the Philippine National Police General Hospital (PNPGH) is ready for former speaker Martin Romualdez once the Sandiganbayan grants the motion for continued hospital arrest, a PNP official said on Wednesday.
“The Health Service [has] already taken the necessary preparations for the possible transfer of [Romualdez] to the PNP General Hospital. There’s a room ready for him,” Col. Allen Rae Co, PNP spokesman, told reporters in a press briefing at Camp Crame.
In a separate statement, Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr., PNP chief, said the PNPGH was fully prepared to accommodate the former speaker.
“Our facilities and personnel are ready to provide medical care while ensuring proper custody under the law,” he added.
Co said PNP doctors were also conferring with his personal physicians at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City every day but were still negotiating for practicing rights for an independent assessment on the former speaker.
The Sandiganbayan Third Division will hold a hearing on Sept. 10 on Romualdez’s Urgent Motion for Continued Hospital Confinement or hospital arrest. Once approved, the PNP will follow with a motion for custody of the former lawmaker for his transfer at the PNPGH.
The PNPGH, a level 2 government medical facility, does not have the luxuries of a private hospital.
“There are no executive suites here, just ordinary rooms,” Co said in Filipino.
Hours before his arrest on Sept. 7, Romualdez was taken to the hospital for a cardiovascular event, unstable blood pressure and anxiety attack. Due to his condition, booking procedures were done in his hospital room witnessed by his family, doctors and lawyers. Despite his continued stay at the Cardinal, the former speaker is now considered a person deprived of liberty and under PNP custody.
No special treatment
To further show that there is “no special treatment” for Romualdez, a first cousin of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the PNP said it welcomed an independent team of physicians to check on the former speaker “to erase any doubts” as to his condition.
“We very much welcome additional doctors to assess the health status of our former speaker,” Co said.
“The PNP assures the public that there will be no special treatment regardless of an individual’s position or status. Our duty is to uphold the rule of law and strictly observe the legal processes,” Nartatez also said.
Since his arrest, Romualdez has been secured by armed guards stationed outside his room and the hospital perimeter.
Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla said Romualdez was a flight risk because of his assets — two private jets, three helicopters and three yachts.
OMB opposition
The Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) on Wednesday said it will block any bid by Romualdez to remain in hospital and will seek an examination by a team of government physicians to determine whether he requires confinement.
“The prosecutors will strongly oppose the motion,” Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano said in a statement.
“In fact, the prosecutors will ask that not just one doctor but a team of government doctors assess whether or not the illnesses declared need confinement or can be managed outside of the hospital,” he added.
The Sandiganbayan Third Division ordered Romualdez arrested on Sept. 7, just hours after the Ombudsman filed a P7.44-billion plunder case against him and three others over alleged kickbacks from flood control and other government infrastructure projects.
Authorities enforced the arrest order at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center, where Romualdez was confined for cardiovascular ailment and unstable blood pressure.
Romualdez’s motion submitted to the anti-graft court stated that aside from hypertension and Type 2 diabetes, the congressman suffers from hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, unstable angina, coronary artery disease, post-percutaneous coronary intervention, cerebrovascular ischemic disease, dyslipidemia and primary hypothyroidism.
It added that to transfer Romualdez at this stage was risky.
The determination will land in the hands of government doctors the Ombudsman will tap for assessment.
“If his illnesses can be managed from outside of the hospital, the prosecutors will move that he be immediately transferred to the regular detention facility as all other accused in non-bailable cases,” Clavano said.
Palace assurance
Malacañang on Wednesday assured the public that no special treatment will be given to Romualdez after he requested hospital custody, emphasizing that his doctors should be allowed to make recommendations about his health.
“Criticism will always be there, but we cannot stop the doctors from seeing the health condition of an accused. It is up to the doctors to decide, and we will give them the benefit of the doubt,” Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said in Filipino.
“If he is in the hospital, he won’t be able to escape,” Castro added, assuring the public that Romualdez will remain under the custody of authorities.
Castro also defended the PNP and the Department of the Interior and Local Government, saying they merely complied with medical assessments when executing the warrant.
Castro assured the public that the president will remain neutral in the arrest of his own cousin.
She also denied that Marcos snitched on Romualdez, noting that the Office of the Ombudsman already has sufficient evidence in its case against the former House speaker.
“Whatever evidence is presented, that is where we should focus. Because the President is neutral in such things — process, law, and there should be no made-up evidence,” said Castro.
