Henry Alcantara hospitalized due to ‘chest discomfort’

Dismissed Bulacan first district engineer Henry Alcantara was brought to a hospital in Pasay City on Monday due to complaints of chest discomfort, Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Mao Aplasca confirmed Wednesday. 

Aplasca said that Alcantara—one of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials being implicated in the flood control controversy—was brought to Pasay Medical Center to have his condition checked through an electrocardiogram (ECG) and other confirmatory tests. 

“But it was ruled only as muscle spasm,” Aplasca said. 

The Senate Sergeant-at-Arms said that Alcantara was returned to the Senate premises also on Monday. 

“He was brought back to the Senate [on the] same day and is very much normal up to today and everyday the Senate medical team is conducting regular check up to all our detainees to monitor their status,” Aplasca added. 

On September 18, the Senate blue ribbon committee on Thursday cited Alcantara in contempt for lying amid his insistence that he had nothing to do with ghost flood control projects in Bulacan.

Alcantara, and his fellow former Bulacan first district engineers Brice Hernandez and Jaypee Mendoza asked the Senate earlier to allow them to be placed under house arrest, according to Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.

Sotto, however, clarified that the Senate blue ribbon committee has not yet decided on the matter. —VAL, GMA Integrated News