Ailing Death Convict Hauled Back To Bilibid, The Philippines

By Philip Tubeza, Tina Santos, Joyce Abaño

Inquirer News Service

February 12, 2004

Without a proper court order, ailing death convict Lenido Lumanog on Wednesday night was taken out of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute and hauled back to the National Bilibid Prisons, according to the convict's lawyer.

The Supreme Court has yet to act on the NBP's motion ordering Lumanog's transfer, when prison officials came knocking at the kidney institute at around 10 p.m. Wednesday, according to Lumanog's lawyer, Soliman Santos Jr.

Lawyer Roberto R. Sangalang, chief legal officer of the Bureau of Corrections, led the team that took the ailing convict into custody on orders of Dionisio R. Santiago, BuCor director, Santos said.

Lumanog's lawyer in a statement described the prison officials as "Gestapo-like" when they brazenly disregarded the rule of law, civility and decency by taking a sick man into custody without the proper court order.

Sangalang said during an interview that they had indeed filed a motion for Lumanog's transfer, but added that the court motion was not really necessary.

"We do not need a clearance because, in the first place, the order was for Lumanog to be taken to the NKTI to be treated," Sangalang said. "And since the doctors had already said he is fit for discharge, it was up to the director or the superintendent to say he should be brought back here."

Sangalang said the only reason for the delay in transfer was because the room wherein Lumanog would be confined had a leaking roof that had to be fixed.

Lumanog, one of five men convicted for the 1996 killing of Col. Rolando Abadilla, is now placed in isolation at the NBP hospital upon the advice of NKTI doctors.

Sangalang said Lumanog was taken into custody in the presence of his lawyer, his wife and three children.

Lumanog lashed back at the BuCor official, saying that he had already lodged a protest in writing and submitted it to Sangalang, "who acknowledged it."

Santos said that the NBP team went to the hospital at night, "well after office hours so there could be no recourse to the courts."

"(Sangalang) refused the pleas of Lumanog's wife that the transfer, if it could not be avoided, be done instead the following morning, after a night's rest and in broad daylight for the safety of all concerned," Santos said.

He said that the transfer was made based on the recommendation of NKTI Director Dr. Enrique T. Ona, who informed the NBP that Lumanog "is now fit for discharge" and that all "he needs is a regular follow-up at (NKTI's) Out-Patient Services after his transfer to your hospital."

In a recent interview, Ona explained that, ordinarily, a patient who has had a kidney transplant needs to stay in the hospital for seven to 12 days.

Ona added that the doctors at the NBP hospital assured him that the "special antiseptic room" is clean and reasonable enough to accommodate post-transplant patients like Lumanog.

"We have bent our backs long enough for (Lumanog)," Ona said, adding that the NKTI has not enough rooms to accommodate other kidney transplant patients.

Lumanog had been confined at the NKTI for more than a year, following an organ transplant.

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This article posted March 9, 2004.