Access to detained Sen. Rodante Marcoleta will be narrowed to his relatives and lawyers, the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said Friday, after a Sandiganbayan magistrate challenged medical officials on why the senator received guests while under an isolation recommendation.
Associate Justice Ronald Moreno directed his questions to representatives of the PNP-Health Service General Hospital, where Marcoleta is confined.
“Why are you allowing him to be visited? Who allowed him to be visited when according to your recommendation he should be in isolation?” Moreno asked.
Lt. Col. Benaly Bayani, who heads the facility’s Internal Medicine Department, offered no explanation. “Di ko po masagot,” she said.
Bayani told the court she would take up the matter with the CIDG to curb further visits.
Brig. Gen. Portia Manalad, the hospital’s director, was asked whether Vice President Sara Duterte had covered her face during her stop at the senator’s room. “I believe, wala,” Manalad replied.
Speaking to reporters afterward, Manalad conceded her staff had fallen short on masking protocols.
“We apologize that there are some lapses na nakita and we will comply with the requirement of the Sandiganbayan,” she said.
She drew a line, however, between the hospital’s responsibilities and those of the police unit holding Marcoleta in custody.
“I don’t know with the security kasi it’s with the CIDG. I’m just saying about the lapses that we forgot to say na kailangan naka-mask sila because of the condition of the senator. ‘Yun lang ang hiningi ko ng apology kasi ‘yun lang ang covered ko. Pero about the arresting, kung ano nangyari, sino papayagan, it will be for the CIDG to decide,” Manalad said.
Duterte went to the hospital Tuesday morning, roughly 24 hours after Marcoleta was taken into custody on plunder charges. Sen. Robin Padilla made his own visit two days later.
Col. John Guiagui, who leads the CIDG Regional Field Unit for the National Capital Region, said the senator and his relatives had sought both meetings, and that the CIDG director signed off on them.
“Yun yung request mismo ni Sen. Marcoleta and his family. And then of course, yung legal team niya, kailangan nila mag-usap, kailangan nila puntahan para sa legal remedies nila,” Guiagui said.
He described a far longer list of would-be guests that was cut down to two.
“Andaming gustong pumasok pero dalawa lang ang napayagan. Andaming gustong pumunta. Friends, relatives, supporters niya but again, on the part of CIDG, we see to it na may restriction sa visitation niya at limited time lang,” he said.
Guiagui said he could not speak to the purpose of either visit. He disputed the account of unmasked guests, at least inside the room.
“Dun naman sa pagpasok nila, may face mask naman sa pagpasok nila. Sa labas lang naman yung walang facemask. Sa pagpasok, syempre with the medical condition,” he said.
The senator’s weakened immune system, Guiagui said, drove the decision to shorten and screen future visits.
“Nire-restrict nga natin kasi may pneumonia. Mababa na ‘yung immune system niya kaya nililimitahan natin ‘yung visitors niya. At the same time, ‘yung tagal ng pagbisita doon sa kuwarto niya, so as not to endanger or mapalala pa ‘yung kanyang kondisyon,” he said.
He pushed back against any suggestion that the senator’s standing had earned him leniency. “Wala naman po tayong favoritism. Again it is restricted, given his medical condition. At very limited na bisita lang po,” Guiagui said.
Physicians have diagnosed Marcoleta with mild pneumonia and consider him unfit to travel, with his blood pressure still swinging. The CIDG has floated July 15 as a possible transfer date but says the senator’s condition will govern the timing.
Prosecutors allege Marcoleta failed to disclose P75 million in campaign contributions. Charged alongside him are ex-Rep. Mike Defensor and businessmen Aristotle Viray and Joseph Espiritu, all of whom are already held at the Quezon City Jail in Payatas — the same facility where the anti-graft court has said Marcoleta will be committed once he appears before the division.
