In 2013, Corazon Buenafe was a thirty-year old Internal

Medicine Resident in Sacred Heart Hospital, Tacloban,

Leyte. Sacred Heart Hospital was located in a depressed
area that was one of the hardest hit by Typhoon Yolanda.
On 07 November 2013, Dr. Buenafe, who was off-duty,
received a message of evacuation from the National Disaster
Risk Reduction and Management Council. Determined to
check up on her patients one last time, she decided to visit
the hospital before heading for higher ground.
She arrives at the hospital to discover that it had already
been abandoned. Looking for anybody left behind, she finds
Pedro Siglain, a fifty-five year old diabetic and prospective
kidney transplant donee, and Paolo Bantayan, a hospital
orderly.
The two relate to Dr. Buenafe that the hospital had been
ordered evacuated and that the transportation that was to
take the staff and patients away to the evacuation center had
run out of room for them. They were waiting for the
ambulance driver who had promised to return for them.
Unbeknownst to them, the storm surge had already arrived,
flooding the streets of Tacloban, rendering them impassable.
Realizing that there might not be any help any time soon, Dr.
Buenafe makes preparations to provide Mr. Siglain much-
needed medical attention. However, his condition quickly
worsens. Dr. Buenafe determines that he was already
experiencing renal failure and that he would die in a matter
of days without proper treatment – treatment that she could
not provide because of the lack of supplies in the hospital. In
the meantime, he would be in terrible, agonizing pain.
Mr. Bantayan manages to make contact with the rescue
operations but he is told that they would have trouble
reaching the hospital. A devout Catholic, he spends the rest
of his time praying by the side of Mr. Siglain who is now in
great pain.
Dr. Buenafe soon realizes that Mr. Siglain is dying. He is
delirious with pain and no longer responds to her questions.
She decides that the best course of action would be to give
him an overdose of morphine. She administers the drug
without the knowledge of Mr. Bantayin. Mr. Siglain dies
peacefully and quietly.
Soon after their rescue, Dr. Buenafe, with the aid of counsel,
confesses to giving Mr. Siglain an overdose of morphine and
she is charged with murder for killing Mr. Siglain and
qualified by the use of treachery.
During trial, expert witnesses testify that Dr. Buenafe’s
medical assessment was correct. When posed the question if
they would do the same however, all answer in the negative.
Dr. Buenafe is convicted in the lower court of the crime of
murder. The case is now in the Supreme Court.