Friday, April 07, 2006

Transfer to hospital outside PNP is best option for Beltran

From the Office of Anakpawis Representative Crispin B. Beltran

Lisa C. Ito, Public Information Officer (+63)927.796.7006

Tel. # (+632) 426-9442 Email: crispinbeltran@gmail.com

URL: http:// www.geocities.com/ap_news



NEWS RELEASE

April 7, 2006



Transfer to hospital outside PNP is best option for Beltran,

doctors and psychiatrists say



Anakpawis Cong. Crispin Beltran's immediate transfer to a hospital outside the Philippine National Police (PNP) vicinity is still the best medical option for the 73-year old and hypertensive solon, his doctors and psychiatrists say.



A Psychiatric Evaluation prepared by Dr. Michael P. Sionzon (License No. 93488) last April 6 strongly recommended Beltran's transfer to another hospital outside the PNP premises.



The said psychiatric evaluation was one of the three documents prepared by medical specialists, presented to the MRTC Branch 137 by his lawyers earlier this morning at the court hearing at the MRTC Branch 137, under Judge Jenny Lind Aledoca-Delorino. The hearing tackled the Omnibus Motion, pleading to resolve the pending urgent Motion of Release and to allow Beltran to be transferred to a hospital with adequate facilities.



Beltran pleads that he be immediately released or be allowed to avail himself of the protective custody of the House of Representatives and be transferred to a hospital with adequate facilities. This Omnibus Motion aiming to effect the release of Cong. Beltran on humanitarian grounds was filed at the MRTC April 3.



The other two documents were a Medical Report issued by cardiologist Dr. Roberto A. Raymundo of the Philippine Heart Center last April 6, and another Medical Report issued by Health Action for Human Right (HAHR) physicians Dr. Romeo F. Quijano, Reginaldo L. Pamugas, and Melani Hernandez-Sionzon also on April 6.



HAHR and Dr. Sionzon recommended Beltran's transfer to another environment. "We have visited and inspected the facilities of the PNP General Hospital where Cong. Crispin Beltran is presently confined. We found such facilities and laboratory inadequate for the kind of ailment the patient is suffering from," Drs. Quijano, Pamugas, and Hernandez-Sionzon said.



The psychiatric evaluation issued by Sionzon also recommended Beltran's transfer because this would considerably decrease Beltran's state of anxiety and recurring nightmares. "It is further recommended that safekeeping in another facility or a transfer to another hospital would be more conducive to his health since his fears of assassination would decrease if he were outside the PNP compound," Sionzon recommended.



While Sionzon noted that Beltran's illegal detention has not demoralized or caused Beltran to be depressed, it has caused him to be overly anxious about the unfinished business he left as a congressman.



"Mr. Beltran's conviction in his principles have steeled him against developing pathologic anxiety or depressive disorders which may be common in the setting he is in��His anxiety mostly comes from his apprehension that he may not be able to carry on with his work any longer when there is still much he has to do. This seems to be where his fear of not being able to withstand torture and of being assassinated comes from. These anxieties were mostly present when he was previously kept inside the maximum security facility in the CIDG compound," Sionzon wrote.



Sionzon noted Beltran's recurring nightmares during the first few days of his illegal detention.



"According to Mr. Beltran, the sight of his old cell triggered flashbacks of the torture he experienced during his previous detention [during Martial Law]. On the first few days after his arrest, he was hypervigilant and anxious. He constantly feared that he might be tortured again and that his body might not be able to stand such abuse as when he was younger. He also feared that he might be assassinated anytime while inside his cell," Sionzon wrote.



"His transfer to the PNP Hospital [after the maximum security facility] offered some relief. Although he still has some anxiety regarding his safety, he affirms that his present detention is part of the risks that are inherent in being an activist. Flashbacks of the torture has abated but he still admits that fears about a possible assassination still remain," Sionzon said.



"Given his overall health condition of being elderly with a history of hypertension and cerebrovascular disease, a return to his cell might be hazardous. Although the anxiety that he experienced during his detention there was not pathological per se, the autonomic responses accompanying it might precipitate another cerebrovascular event," Sionzon wrote.



More than a month has passed since Beltran was arbitrarily arrested and illegally detained in Camp Crame. His family and colleagues have been calling for Beltran's transfer to a hospital of his choice with adequate medical facilities, while the rebellion and sedition charges filed against him take their course through the judiciary. ###

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