Imelda brother placed under close guard

A brother of former First Lady Imelda Marcos was placed under close guard and monitoring by the Sandiganbayan yesterday while he is confined at a hospital in Manila for a heart ailment.

Tacloban City Mayor Alfredo "Bejo" Romualdez, a younger brother of Mrs. Marcos, had been ordered arrested last week by the anti-graft court for failing to present himself in court during his arraignment in a graft case stemming from his alleged illegal takeover in 1975 of the Bataan Shipyard and Engineering Co. (Baseco).

Anti-graft court security and sheriff services chief Edgardo Urieta said yesterday it was impossible to place Romualdez under physical custody of Sandiganbayan owing to his poor health.

Urieta along with sheriffs Manuel Torio and Reynaldo Melquiades checked for themselves the true condition of Romualdez at the Manila Doctors Hospital on UN Avenue in Ermita.

"He was asleep at the time and the sheriffs of this court did not bother anymore to wake up the accused," Urieta said. They talked instead with Romualdez’s son, former Leyte Rep. Alfred Romualdez, and Romualdez’s counsel, Enrico Fernando, who were attending to the accused in the hospital.

Urieta said he requested Dr. Rody Sy, the personal physician of Romualdez, to submit in court the medical bulletins of the patient.

The sheriffs, he said, have been instructed to monitor and guard the accused until further orders from the court.

Romualdez was ordered arrested last week by Associate Justice Ma. Cristina Cortez-Estrada, acting chairman of the anti-graft court’s fifth division, after he failed to present himself in court for his scheduled arraignment in the graft case docketed as criminal case No. 13736 arising from the Baseco charges.

Fernando said Romualdez had intended to surrender voluntarily to the sheriffs of the Sandiganbayan if not for his poor health.

In an earlier motion filed with the court’s fifth division, Romualdez said his non-appearance at his scheduled March 25 arraignment was not out of disrespect for the court but "only for the purpose of avoiding a life-threatening situation." He said his doctors had advised him against attending his arraignment.

The motion said that Romualdez would be undergoing a quadruple bypass for which he must not only prepare himself physically, he must also put his official functions, business and family concerns in order.