Sen. Rodante Marcoleta requires no hospital care based on the results of an independent examination, the head of the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital told the Sandiganbayan Third Division, undercutting the medical justification that has kept the plunder-accused lawmaker out of a detention cell for more than a week.
Dr. Gerardo Legaspi, who directs the state-run teaching hospital, relayed the finding to the anti-graft court after his physicians evaluated Marcoleta on Tuesday, July 14. The senator was taken from the Philippine National Police General Hospital in Camp Crame to the Manila facility under escort by agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, arriving before noon in a wheelchair.
The examination was not something Legaspi’s team volunteered. The Third Division ordered it on July 10 after justices grew doubtful of the PNP’s own reporting on the senator’s health, directing the PGH to determine within three days whether keeping Marcoleta at the police hospital remained medically imperative. Associate Justice Karl Miranda, who chairs the division, issued the directive alongside a demand for a written recommendation.
The court’s skepticism had been sharpened by a separate controversy. Associate Justice Ronald Moreno pressed police officials over how Vice President Sara Duterte and Sen. Robinhood Padilla had been permitted to visit a patient supposedly isolated for a contagious illness. According to GMA News, Moreno confronted the officials during the July 10 hearing: “He has pneumonia. Why are we allowing him to be visited by several individuals? He is under your care,” the justice said. Brig. Gen. Portia Manalad, who heads the PNP Health Service, later acknowledged before reporters that the failure to require face masks during the visits amounted to a lapse under her jurisdiction. GMA News Online
Marcoleta, 72, was booked on July 6 on a non-bailable plunder charge stemming from an alleged P75 million in campaign donations he did not disclose in his statement of contributions and expenditures. The Office of the Ombudsman filed the case on July 3, and the Third Division issued warrants of arrest and hold departure orders after finding probable cause. Rather than being committed to the New Quezon City Jail in Payatas as ordered, he was placed at the police hospital, where doctors diagnosed mild pneumonia along with hypertension, elevated cholesterol and degenerative disc disease.
Before the independent review, the PNP hospital’s own internal medicine chief, Lt. Col. Benaly Bayani, had told the court the senator was already fit to travel provided he wore a mask, while recommending that he remain confined until Wednesday, July 15, to complete a course of antibiotics. Bayani reported his blood pressure as controlled at 130/90 and described his condition as stable, though she declined to name a firm date for his transfer to a detention facility.
The confinement drew public criticism as a form of preferential handling. Sen. Panfilo Lacson pointed to what he called a recurring pattern of prominent figures falling ill and landing under hospital arrest, naming both Marcoleta and former public works chief Manuel Bonoan, who also faces plunder proceedings before the same court. PNP spokesman Col. Allen Rae Co pushed back on that reading, telling reporters the senator occupied an ordinary hospital room and that the assessment reflected the professional judgment of physicians who would not risk their careers.
The anti-graft court has still not issued a formal commitment order in the case, because Marcoleta has yet to physically appear before the Third Division since he was booked.
