Court allows Ivler to be treated in govt hospital

A Quezon City judge has allowed road slay suspect Jason Ivler to be treated of his wound in a government hospital, but not to be confined as he earlier sought, supposedly for his major abdominal surgery. In a one-page order, QC Regional Trial Court Branch 219 Presiding Judge Bayani Vargas ordered the QC jail warden to take Ivler to the East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City with full security detail, and bring him back to his detention cell after the treatment of his wound. Claiming that their client needs urgent confinement in a hospital, Ivler's lawyers last June filed an urgent motion for medical confinement before the sala of QCRTC Branch 76 Presiding Judge Alexander Balut, who first handled the case. [See story: QC judge withdraws from Ivler cse] In the motion, Ivler’s lawyers even requested that the confinement be at the St. Luke's Medical Center because the condition of their client’s existing wounds was worsening due to infection. But the motion was not immediately acted upon after Judge Balut inhibited himself from further handling the case. At the hearing last Wednesday, Lawyer Priscilla Abante, one of Ivler's legal counsels, urged the court to grant the motion because blood and intestine were coming out from the suspect's gaping wound, and that his condition needed urgent medical attention. State Prosecutor Olivia Torrevillas objected to Abante's motion, saying Ivler’s injuries were not that serious, based on the opinion of the doctor who had examined him. But in his order, Judge Vargas said, "after manifestations and counter manifestations off the record, the Court granted the motion to bring the accused to the East Avenue Medical Center for treatment of his wound." A colostomy bag — used to collect body wastes — is attached to the body of Ivler after his abdominal surgery due to the gunshot wounds he sustained when he shot it out with National Bureau of Investigation agents who tried to serve an arrest warrant on him at their residence in Blue Ridge Subdivision in Quezon City last Jan. 18, 2010. Ivler is facing murder charges for slaying of Renato Victor Ebarle, son of Presidential Management Staff Undersecretary Renato Victor Ebarle Sr, during a heated traffic altercation last Nov. 18, 2009 in Quezon City. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV