Former lawmaker may spend Christmas in hospital

Convicted killer and former Occidental Mindoro congressman Jose Villarosa is currently confined at the Makati Medical Center due to pneumonia.

STAR sources in the hospital said Villarosa is staying at Room 902, a suite for VIPs.

National Bilibid Prisons Superintendent Juanito Leopando confirmed that Villarosa was taken out of the prison last week so he could be treated in a hospital with more modern equipment compared to the hospital in the NBP compound.

NBP personnel said Villarosa is suffering from pneumonia and needed to be brought to a much better hospital.

Villarosa was sentenced to death in 2006 for killing barangay chairman Michael Quintos and his brother Paul in Mamburao in 1997. Villarosa is appealing his sentence. 

The victims’ father, former Occidental Mindoro governor Ricardo Quintos, is Villarosa’s political rival.

The elder Quintos told radio station dzMM that Villarosa would allegedly act sick every holiday season. 

Last year, the Office of the Solicitor General recommended to the Court of Appeals that Villarosa and three other people convicted of murdering the Quintos brothers should be acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Villarosa’s wife, Deputy House Speaker Amelita Villarosa, figured in a controversy last October involving questionable cash gifts reportedly given to government officials in elective posts. – With Michael Punongbayan