• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
An inmate detained at the police custodial facility was declared dead on arrival on July 16 at the Gov. Valeriano Gatuslao Memorial District Hospital in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental.
Initial police investigation indicates that the attention of the jailer was called by an inmate, after noticing that Arthur James Vargas, alias Negro, who faces charges for violation of RA 9165, known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drug Act of 2002, was not feeling well and having a seizure.
Vargas was immediately brought to the hospital by responding personnel of the City Disaster Risk Management Office, where he was declared dead on arrival by the attending physician, Dr. Rodolfo Torillo Blancia Jr.
The cadaver was later brought to a funeral parlor, as requested by the police, for the conduct of a post mortem examination by City Health Officer, Dr. Medardo Estanda.
On July 4, a tricycle driver identified by the police as Rosemar Herrera, 51, who was arrested for alleged rape, also died at medical facility in Candoni, after a seizure and vomiting blood at the town police station.
The police discovered that Herrera had been suffering from tuberculosis.*
