Court rules Zaldy A.'s medical condition open to public scrutiny

MANILA, Philippines - Saying it was “bereft of merit,” a court hearing the murder charges against detained Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan denied yesterday his plea for confidential treatment of information on his medical condition.

Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 said the privilege to treat such information as confidential “may be invoked only in a civil case, but not in a criminal case.”

“When the latter’s medical condition becomes a fact in issue and an investigation or hearing relating thereto is necessary, the physician concerned, even without the consent of the patient must divulge to the prosecution any information which he may have acquired while attending to the accused in his professional capacity,” Solis-Reyes said.

Ampatuan, through a manifestation that his lawyer Redemberto Villanueva filed, earlier assailed a news article that came out in The STAR, saying “it was highly judgmental.”

The report discussed Ampatuan’s plea before the court to include a mental health doctor among the physicians who would examine him.

Both the requests for a medical exam to check on cited illnesses like diabetes and asthma and for him to see a doctor from the National Center for Mental Health were granted by the court.

He said the news reports that came out violated Ampatuan’s right to privacy and confidentiality to his own medical condition.

No preferential treatment

In a related development, the prosecution did not agree to the request of Zaldy’s father, Andal Sr., to be confined in a hospital in an air-conditioned room in connection with his illnesses.

The prosecution, led by Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard Fadullon, filed the comment last Friday and demanded that the defense and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) officials first give them the details of such arrangement.

“The prosecution realizes the humanitarian issues in the urgent motion, but it will not stand idly and watch preferential treatment for an accused beyond what his health condition requires. The BJMP is now given fair warning,” the prosecution said.

The clan patriarch, through his lawyer, earlier claimed that Dr. Marilou Bongco of the UBHI-Parañaque Doctors Hospital had issued a certification that he is suffering from “chronic obstructive pulmonary disease” and needed to be in an air-conditioned room.

His camp said BJMP physician Supt. Claro Mundin adopted Bongco's findings and recommendations.

Before this, Andal Sr. had asked to be examined by a government doctor, citing high blood pressure and diabetes, among others.

The prosecution asked the court to direct a doctor from the Philippine General Hospital to re-examine Andal Sr.