Medellin Mayor Ricky Ramirez (CDN FILE PHOTO)
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Several contraband items were found in the hospital room of former Medellin mayor and now town councilor Ricardo Ramirez inside a privately-owned hospital in Bogo City in northern Cebu where he has been placed on hospital arrest.
The Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO), together with agents from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7), conducted the surprise inspection at Ramirez’s hospital room as part of the greyhound operation at the Medellin District Jail at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, February 20.
Authorities found no contraband inside the penitentiary that housed about 500 prisoners, according to a report released today by the CPPO through the Deputy Provincial Director for Operations, Superintendent Melbert Glade Esguerra.
The report said that when the police and PDEA-7 agents went to the hospital room of Ramirez, where he has been confined for about a year now, authorities found and seized liquors, cigarettes, lighters, assorted cellphone accessories, wireless charger, playing cards, and portable speaker.
Authorities also conducted a surprise drug test on Ramirez whose results were negative, the report added.
Chief Supt. Jose Mario Espino, then director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), checks the firearms seized from the residence of former mayor and now incumbent councilor of Medellin Ricky Ramirez (in handcuffs) in Barangay Caputatan, Medellin, after it was raided by the police early on Wednesday, July 26, 2017.|CDN File Photo
Ramirez is considered an inmate of the Medellin District Jail after he was arrested in 2017 for illegal possession of several high powered firearms.
READ MORE: Cache of guns in ex-mayor’s home
But he is now under hospital arrest after having difficulty in breathing while detained in the overcrowded jail./elb
READ MORE: Hospital arrest for detained Medellin town councilor?