Gov’t prosecutors block Revilla’s motion for medical check-up at St. Luke’s

Sen. Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla Jr. with wife Lani Mercado face the public on the night before he surrenders to PNP. Screenshot of Solar News footage.

MANILA — Government prosecutors blocked on Wednesday Senator Ramon Revilla Jr.’s motion to spend an overnight medical check-up at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City, saying he can have his medical tests as an out-patient.

“In fact, these tests can be done by the accused as an out-patient. Thus, there is no need for the accused to stay overnight in the hospital, outside his place of detention,” the prosecutors said in their motion before the Sandiganbayan First Division.

They argued that the supposed ailment of Revilla, claimed in his motion as persistent migraines and cough and colds, was diagnosed by Dr. Ma. Cristina Macrohon-Valdez, his personal physician, and not by a government doctor.

“Revilla has not been examined by a government physician who can verify and attest to the fact that he is indeed suffering from the medical conditions and that he must undergo further medical check-up and diagnostic tests…,” the prosecutors stressed.

They also claimed that the court should deny Revilla’s motion for lack of merit. Should the court grant it, the senator should only be allowed as an out-patient.

“The prosecution prays that the Court limit the accused Revilla’s medical check-up as an out-patient,” the motion said.

In a manifestation filed before the anti-graft court’s First Division, Revilla asked the Sandiganbayan to allow him overnight medical work-up and consultation on Nov. 17.

In her attached medical certificate, Dr. Valdez said she was recommending “a full medical work-up and consultation with other respective specialists as soon as possible… so as to prevent further complications.”

The medical certificate issued showed that Revilla was “complaining of coughs and colds associated with generalized body malaise for one week duration on top of recurrent migraine headaches.”

In an earlier check-up, Revilla was diagnosed with the following medical problems — migraine headache, lumbo-sacral radiculopathy secondary to spondylosis, hypertension not well-controlled, and dyslipidemia.

Revilla has asked the court for him to have magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for his persistent migraines.

The senator faces plunder and graft charges for his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam, the purported diversion of senators’ Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to ghost projects for kickbacks.

Revilla and co-accused Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile are detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City.