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.