Court junks contempt raps over Zaldy hospitalization

MANILA, Philippines - The Quezon City court handling the Maguindanao massacre trial has dismissed the contempt charges filed against a number of personalities involved in medical proceedings conducted on Zaldy Ampatuan.

Regional Trial Court Branch 221 Assisting Judge Genie Gapas-Agbada issued three separate orders exonerating Ampatuan, his lawyer Firdausi Abbas, former jail wardens Clement Laboy and Bernardino Camus, and four doctors from contempt raps.

The cases were filed by the prosecution panel.

The case against Laboy was filed after he allegedly allowed the nurse and doctor of Ampatuan inside the Quezon City Jail-Annex on April 23 and May 10, 2010 without permission from the court.

But Laboy maintained that “to ask for medical treatment, especially when circumstances demand it immediately, is a right accorded by the Constitution.”

The court found his defense satisfactory, saying the law allows a doctor to visit a detained person.

The judge also dismissed the case against Camus, Abbas and Ampatuan over the latter’s confinement at the Philippine Heart Center on July 19, 2011.

Doctors Reynaldo Rosales, Maita Senadrin, Danilo Kuizon and Agnes Aglipay were also cleared of contempt charges.