The Philippine National Police General Hospital (PNPGH) reported on Wednesday that former Public Works and Highways Secretary Manuel Bonoan remains clinically stable and is responding well to medication for his hypertension while under hospital arrest.

Lieutenant Colonel Benaly Bayani, chief of PNPGH Internal Medicine, assured the public that Bonoan’s condition is closely monitored by the medical team and currently presents no major health concerns.

"Engineer Bonoan is presently clinically stable, and his hypertension is under control for now. He is currently on medication," Bayani said in Filipino.

Bonoan's hospital confinement follows a recent legal development involving his graft and plunder charges. The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division recently granted the Office of the Ombudsman's motion to drop Bonoan from the high-profile case linked to former Senator Jinggoy Estrada.

In a 2-1 decision, the anti-graft court upheld that determining which defendants to utilize as state witnesses falls squarely within the Ombudsman's prosecutorial discretion.

Last May, the Ombudsman formally charged Bonoan and several co-accused with alleged conspiracy to amass over P500 million in kickbacks stemming from government flood control projects.