Tuesday, May 27, 2008
DOH says they are willing to stop proceedings as soon as they get ombud order
THE Deputy Ombudsman is asking the Department of Health (DOH) to postpone its scheduled administrative hearing today on Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) workers involved in the controversial operation on Genaro Jorolan, also known as Jan-Jan.
Instead, Deputy Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol asked the DOH to prepare to turn over all its records on the case and the complaint prepared by VSMMC Chief Dr. Gerardo Aquino to the Office of the Ombudsman.
The DOH, however, is set to continue holding the hearing today unless they get a written order from the ombudsman. Apostol also said there is nothing to stop the DOH from holding the hearing because the ombudsman still has not issued an order to take over the probe.
DOH is scheduled to hold the pre-hearing at 2 p.m. with complainant Aquino and the six medical workers named in his complaint.
Dr. Angelita Salarda, hearing committee head, told Sun.Star Cebu they could not stop the investigation until they get written communication from the ombudsman. Salarda also said they were told by higher DOH officials to wait for the order.
“We just cannot tell the lawyers ‘we were told,’ mu ingon gyud mi sa lawyers that there is a communication,” said Salarda.
Being drafted
Salarda said they are prepared to stop the proceedings as soon as they receive an order from the ombudsman.
The ombudsman, however, still has to issue the order for their takeover of the administrative investigation.
“The last update I heard is that the order is being drafted but none has reached my office so far. On the other hand, I heard that there is already a scheduled hearing (today),” Apostol said yesterday.
Apostol said Assistant Ombudsman Virgina Palanca-Santiago was tasked to prepare the draft order. However, she was sent to an ombudsman seminar.
Apostol admitted that there is nothing that prevents the DOH from pursuing today’s administrative investigation on its own.
If it does, however, the DOH will have to see the investigation through because the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas will no longer take over.
Other people
“There are other people we want to investigate but they are not included in their complaint,” Apostol said.
Apostol does not expect a turf war in the investigation, saying Health Undersecretary Alexander Padilla already expressed his willingness to have the investigation turned over to the anti-graft office.
The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, through a final evaluation report prepared by associate graft investigator Elmer Gutierrez and approved by Santiago, earlier filed criminal charges against 14 VSMMC doctors, nurses and clinical instructors after a fact-finding investigation on Jorolan’s original complaint.
Twelve of them were to be investigated administratively.
Aquino, however, filed a separate complaint against six people over the same issue before the DOH. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III immediately had three of the six persons preventively suspended – Dr. Philips Leo Arias, head surgeon; Dr. Max Joseph Montecillo, surgeon; and Carmina Sapio, circulating nurse.
Jorolan, for his part, has expressed his preference to have the anti-graft office conduct the investigation.
Jorolan, in his complaint, accused unidentified staff members of the VSMMC of acting inappropriately by videotaping the medical procedure he underwent to remove a body spray canister lodged inside his rectum and then uploading it to YouTube, a video-sharing website.
The anti-graft office identified those responsible as Arias, the surgeon in charge, Marlowe Parreno, the consultant of the Department of Surgery, Angelo Linawagan, the assistant surgeon, and Joseph Alfred de Leon, the one assigned in documenting the procedure.
Also included are Drs. Joanne Mae Merilles, the resident anesthesiologist, Serapio Salazar, the consultant of the Department of Anesthesiology, and Montecillo of the Department of Surgery.
The nurses, in turn, are Isabelita Remulta, the operating room nurse supervisor, Circulating Nurse Sapio, Operating Room Nurse Supervisor Consuelo Tecling, the nurse
on call, Ida Sumayang, and nursing attendant Rosemarie Villareal.
One A. Oplado and Ramon Penley “Monching” Pandaan, both clinical instructors, were also charged. (KNR/EPB)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 27, 2008 issue)
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