Doctor recommends hospitalization for Zaldy

Murder suspect Rizaldy "Zaldy" Ampatuan might finally get a chance to leave his detention cell after a government doctor recommended his hospitalization due to several illnesses. In a July 12 memorandum, Chief Inspector Agnes Aglipay, head of the Health Service Unit of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology-National Capital Region, stressed that the suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governor needs to be treated in a "hospital setting." "[Zaldy will] be brought to the nearest government hospital on an outpatient basis or depending on the recommendation of the attending physicians on the receiving government hospital," Aglipay said. At present, Zaldy is "isolated" from his fellow suspects and accused in a separate cell (Cell Number 6) at the Quezon City Jail annex inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City due to health reasons. He, however, has yet to be arraigned for his supposed role in the November 2009 Maguindanao massacre. Recent checkup After a recent check-up of Zaldy, doctors discovered that the suspended ARMM governor "has coronary heart diseases and poorly controlled Diabetes Mellitus that needs immediate evaluation and prompt treatment." Dr. Maita Senadrin, Zaldy's cardiologist, said the massacre suspect's blood pressure during the checkup was 140/90. For her part, Aglipay said in her recommendation that Ampatuan experiences episodes of shortness of breath relieved only by oxygen installation and nebulation. The court hearing the Maguindanao massacre case received the physician's recommendation from Senior Inspector Bernardino Edgar Camus, officer in charge of the Quezon City Jail Annex. The court will have the final say on Aglipay's recommendation that Zaldy be hospitalized. "At present, he complains of frequent thirst and urination at least four to five times at night, blurring of vision, lower extemity pain and numbness," said Dr. Reynaldo Rosales, Zaldy's endocrinologist at St. Luke's Medical Center-Global City. Doctors said Zaldy has been both hypertensive and insulin-dependent since 2001. "He was also diagnosed to have fatty liver and previous gastroscopy showed him affected with Helicobacter pylori," Senadrin said. Among the tests that Aglipay recommended Zaldy to undergo were: