Judge orders Cebu Doctors' to release patient

CEBU, Philippines - Judge Wilfredo Fiel Navarro yesterday ordered the release of a patient who was held by the Cebu Doctors University Hospital for unpaid bills.

Flora B. Edillon, the mother of the patient, filed a petition for habeas corpus which Judge Navarro granted after a hearing yesterday.

In her petition, Edillon narrated that her daughter Aurora, a teacher, was confined at the hospital since May 25 after sustaining injuries in a vehicular accident at the reclamation area in Mandaue City.

Edillon, who is unemployed, explained that she and her daughter no longer had any money left to pay for the bills, so they requested that Aurora be discharged. But the hospital allegedly refused to grant their request, so the unpaid bills continued to pile up, reaching P600,000.

“The act of the respondents in not allowing the patient to go out from confinement is apparently a gross violation of her constitutional right to liberty,” Edillon wrote in her petition. She was assisted by lawyer Aquilino C. Felicitas Jr.

She added that she already exhausted all available measures, including a promise to pay in installment and willingness to sign a promissory note, but to no avail.

“Respondents continue, despite patient and petitioner’s plea for release… (to) maintain that ‘no full pay, no release,’” Edillon added in her petition.

Judge Navarro heard the petition yesterday, where the lawyer for Cebu Doctors University Hospital explained that the patient was not able to pay even a single peso for her medical treatment.

The judge ordered for Aurora’s release. The patient, meanwhile, was asked to sign a promissory note to pay the bills in installment basis.   (FREEMAN NEWS)