Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 13) — The Supreme Court said Wednesday it will look into the case of Doctor Benigno “Iggy” Agbayani Jr. who was convicted of reckless imprudence resulting in serious physical injuries.
Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo said they need to do this to avoid similar incidents from happening.
“Iche-check namin kung anong nangyari talaga doon. Hindi kami puwedeng basta magsabi na ganito ang gagawin. Rerepasuhin namin ang record mula sa trial court hanggang sa makarating ang kaso sa Supreme Court at base sa kung ano ang naging resulta, maaari kaming gumawa ng mga bagong instruction o rules para huwag nang maulit ang ganitong sitwasyon,” he explained.
[Translation: We will check to see what really happened. We cannot say now what we will do. We will first examine the records from the trial court and the result of the case in the Supreme Court. We may opt to implement new instructions and rules so that these kinds of incidents will not happen again.]
“We’ll look into it, what happened exactly,” he added.
Gesmundo said among the things that came out were “some lapses committed by the lawyer” of Agbayani.
He added that they will check if the lawyers were not doing enough to protect their clients.
Agbayani treated a lawyer patient who sued him for allegedly using an unsterilized tool in his knee operation which resulted in an infection.
The Supreme Court affirmed Agbayani’s conviction in 2021.
He died in prison because of a heart attack in October this year. The medical community rallied behind Agbayani and called for a review of his case.
Gesmundo appealed to the doctors that they too took an oath to fulfill their job.
