Leviste quietly leaves hospital

Three days after posting bail, former Batangas governor Antonio Leviste was discharged from the Makati Medical Center yesterday.

Makati City Police chief, Superintendent Gilbert Cruz, said he left the hospital sometime around midnight apparently to avoid media attention.

Leviste, 67, who was charged for homicide after he shot his executive officer Rafael delas Alas to death last Jan. 12, checked himself in at the MMC before surrendering to Mayor Jejomar Binay.

He stayed at the seventh floor of the hospital for nine straight days where he was treated for hypertension.

The case against him was filed in court less than a week after the Makati City police and the victim’s children lodged a complaint.

Leviste, who granted no media interviews, told Binay during his surrender that he acted in self-defense because Delas Alas, 68, was going to kill him.

Before the killing, witnesses said the former governor figured in a heated argument with Delas Alas, who sustained gunshot wounds in the face and an alleged defense wound on the left forearm based on an autopsy by forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun.

Makati City Regional Trial Court Judge Elmo Alamadea scheduled the arraignment of his case at 9 a.m. on Jan. 24.

However, the victim’s relatives are still trying to find legal means to upgrade the charges to murder and are planning to seek a postponement of the arraignment.

Leviste is expected to make his first public appearance since the killing on Wednesday to enter a plea in court.