MANILA — The Court of Appeals has denied the appeal of former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Zaldy Ampatuan for him to be transferred from the New Bilibid Prison to another medical facility.

In a 9-page decision dated July 4, the CA junked Ampatuan's petition questioning the ruling of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes, who in 2020 denied the former governor's request for transfer.

The appellate court said the petition, which is based on Ampatuan's concern of contracting COVID-19, had become moot due to the lower number of cases of the coronavirus in the country.

CA explained that a petition becomes moot and academic when a conflicting issue a court needs to resolve ceases to exist due to recent developments, "so that an adjudication of the case would be of no more practical use or value."

The court also noted that the National Capital Region (NCR) had been under Alert Level 1 since April, and that as of March, about 27,879 persons deprived of liberty had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with some starting to receive booster shots.

"These developments are based on and affirmed by official statements of the government and are also of public knowledge of which judicial notice may be taken. And while the Court in the case at bar is called upon to make a determination of whether respondent judge acted with grave abuse of discretion in issuing the assailed order, these events and developments have supervened thereby rendering the reliefs prayed for moot," the court said.

Ampatuan, 54, is currently serving reclusion perpetua sentence over his conviction for 57 counts of murder in connection with the Maguindanao massacre in November 2009.

Among those slain in the 2009 massacre were 32 journalists and several members of the Mangudadatu clan, rival of the Ampatuans.

—with report from Mike Navallo, ABS-CBN News