Former Rep. Jaime Zarraga, who was arrested on Monday by virtue of several warrants of arrest for syndicated estafa and large scale illegal recruitment, was taken to the Philippine General Hospital after he allegedly suffered heart attack while detained at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) jail.

Assistant Regional Director (ARD) Roland Argabioso, chief of Field Operations Division, said Zarraga is now confined at the Manila
Doctors Hospital (MADOCS).

Zarraga belongs to party-list group Hanay ng Aping Pinoy (HAPI). He claims to be the chairman and chief executive of Voice of Manila (VOM).

Argabioso said they are still waiting for the latest health update on Zarraga.

“We already turned him over to the bureau jail. We were told that he complained of difficulty of breathing. NBI doctors attended to him and suggested that he be brought to a hospital. He was immediately taken to PGH and was then later transferred to Manila Doctors Hospital. We learned that he was in the intensive care unit (ICU),” he said.

Argabioso said his men arrested Zarraga on the strength of warrants issued by various Regional and Municipal Trial Courts from Makati and Nueva Vizcaya.

“We only enforce the service of warrants. The warrants were issued as early as 1995, with the bulk issued in 1996 or more than a decade ago,” Argabioso said.

NBI agents assigned to FOD arrested Zarraga last Monday at the Bulwagan ng Katarungan in Pasig City after he testified in a case before a Pasig court where he is the complainant in a case in connection with some broadband wireless access.

The warrants were not served because Zarraga either disappeared or eluded arrest.

It was only recently that the NBI discovered that Zarraga had been hiding in Metro Manila after operatives tracking him down had monitored recent media reports identifying him as the representative of small broadcasting companies called Voice of Manila (VOM) Broadcasting Corporation and Exodus Broadcasting.

VOM was reported to have sued the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) over a broadband wireless access (BWA) frequency issue.

Following this lead, the NBI was able to eventually trace Zarraga’s whereabouts and successfully implemented a plan leading to his arrest.

Large scale illegal recruitment is a non-bailable offense.