BJMP doc sacked for ‘erroneous’ report on Andal Sr.'s health

Even before the relief of the Quezon City Jail Annex warden in Taguig City, the physician who examined Maguindanao massacre suspect Andal Ampatuan Sr. has apparently been sacked from her post as well. However, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) director Rosendo Dial clarified that Dr. Victoria Valeria was relieved not because of allegations that Andal Sr. was receiving special treatment while in detention, for which jail warden Chief Inspector Glennford Valdepeñas was relieved. Dial said Valeria was removed from her post last week because of her "erroneous" medical report on the clan patriarch, who had earlier requested to be examined for his swollen right foot and leg. Valeria was chief of the BJMP-National Capital Region Health Service Unit inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City. She has been re-assigned to another BJMP unit and replaced by Dr. Agnes Aglipay. Dial said the error in the report was only "one of several factors" that led to Valeria's relief. He did not elaborate. In a May 4 report she submitted to Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221, Valeria recommended that Andal Sr. be further examined by his attending physician, a certain Glenn Santos of the Makati Medical Center, because the medication prescribed for the suspect's health problem did not seem to be working. However, a check by the prosecution with MMC showed that there was no attending physician by the name of Dr. Glenn Santos there. "This is to certify that based on our records, Dr. Glenn Santos is not an attending physician of the Makati Medical Center," according to certification from the hospital's Medical Services Division dated May 14, a copy of which was obtained by GMA News Online. In her report, Valeria also said the swelling — caused by osteoarthritis — was on Andal Sr.'s left ankle joint, and not on his right foot. Dial said Valeria, in defense, said she wrote "Glenn Santos" in her medical report because that was the name given to her by Andal Sr. when she asked him to identify the last doctor who examined him. Dial said Andal Sr. was supposedly referring to a "Dr. Glenn Ramos" and not "Glenn Santos." Private prosecutor Nena Santos, legal counsel for Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, who lost his wife and sisters in the massacre, said her camp eventually found out that Glenn Ramos was a "trainee" at the MMC. The prosecution had earlier expressed apprehension that Andal Sr. could be using his health condition and his eventual request to be hospitalized as a means to escape from jail. Andal Sr.'s legal counsel Sigfrid Fortun, however, doused the prosecution's fear, saying his client's health complaints were legitimate. "He could not even wear his slipper because it would no longer fit due to his swollen leg," Fortun said. Fortun said another physician conducted a full medical examination on Andal Sr. last May 24, but the results have yet to be released. The lawyer said the report would become basis whether or not Andal Sr. would have to get treatment from a tertiary government hospital. — KBK, GMA News