Senator Rodante Marcoleta has been diagnosed with pneumonia while confined at the PNP General Hospital following his arrest earlier this week in connection with a plunder case.
Lt. Col. Belany Bayani, chief of the hospital’s internal medicine department, confirmed the diagnosis to the media on Wednesday.
“The findings show that Sen. Marcoleta has pneumonia,” Bayani said.
Bayani could not immediately determine when Marcoleta developed the illness, but said it may have started before his hospital admission.
“It’s possible that it developed before he was admitted here…He was just admitted here so definitely not while he is at the hospital,” Bayani said.
“Maybe while he’s outside,” she added.
Marcoleta was arrested last Monday along with his three co-accused: former Quezon City Rep. Michael Defensor and businessmen Joseph Espiritu and Aristotle Viray.
Defensor, Espiritu, and Viray were committed to the Quezon City Jail in Payatas, Quezon City. Marcoleta, meanwhile, was brought to the PNP General Hospital after complaining of chest pains.
Bayani said Marcoleta’s blood pressure remained elevated. As of Wednesday, it was recorded at 160/90, which she described as “considered hypertensive Stage 2.”
She said the senator is still not fit to travel.