Andal Ampatuan Sr. has only a few months to live

Multiple murder suspect and clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. may only have a few months to live after being diagnosed with liver cancer.

A medical certificate submitted by his lawyer Salvador Panelo to the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 showed that Ampatuan's cancer is already at an advanced stage and that his chances of survival are dim.

“This is to verify that Andal Ampatuan Sr. is still admitted at our institute. He is currently being managed as a case of advanced liver cancer with signs of decompensation,” the certificate read.

“Prognosis is currently dim as pharmacologist intervention is limited. Expected life expectancy for such case is three to six months but may be shorter if the liver function will continuously and progressively deteriorate,” it added.

Though signed by Ampatuan's physician, Dr. Jade Jamias, the medical certificate was not notarized. Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes noted the medical certificate.

Ampatuan, several of his sons and dozens others are facing multiple murder charges in connection with the Maguindanao massacre.

A total of 58 victims, including 32 journalists, were killed in the massacre on November 23, 2009, alleged to have been carried out by prominent members of the southern Philippine clan of the Ampatuans.

The serious condition of Ampatuan has already prompted his sons and a grandson, who are all his co-accused in the murder case, to request to be allowed to visit their ailing loved one.

In separate motions, sons Rizaldy “Zaldy” Ampatuan and Andal Ampatuan Jr., as well as grandson Datu Anwar Sajid “Ulo” Ampatuan all requested Solis-Reyes’ permission to pay the clan patriarch a visit at the NKTI.

Solis-Reyes has not yet ruled on any of the three requests.

In his request, Zaldy also asked Solis-Reyes to allow him to seek “additional medical examination” at the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City, so he could be subjected under a myocardial perfusion imaging, a non-invasive imaging test that shows how well blood flows through (perfuses) your heart muscle.

Zaldy said such medical procedure was unavailable at the medical facility inside the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, where he and the rest of the accused in the murder case are detained.

“Treatment [for his condition] will be found at the Philippine Heart Center,” said Zaldy.

Zaldy was confined for a time at the Philippine Heart Center in 2011 after he was found to be suffering from a coronary heart disease, though considered “insignificant” and “non-critical” at the time, according to the hospital.

"Considering the proximity of the Heart Center to the NKTI, where accused Andal Sr. has been admitted for liver cancer and mindful of the gravity of Andal Sr’s health condition, as well as the likelihood of his complete physical deterioration, accused Zaldy requests that he be allowed to pay a short visit to his ailing father after the MPI test and before returning to the BJMP at Camp Bagong Diwa,” read Zaldy’s omnibus motion.

“The thought of his own kin, the man who raised him, being so nearby afflicted with a disease as debilitating as it is unfortunate drives Zaldy to put forth before this honorable court a plea to allow him to see his father and his father to see him while a chance for doing so still remains,” read Zaldy’s plea. -NB, GMA News