ARMED Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff General Carlito Galvez Jr. on Monday, August 13, vowed to break the cartel operating at the V. Luna Medical Center and fix the hospital's procurement system in a month.
Galvez said he has ordered a major revamp and reform in the military’s health service command and at the V. Luna Hospital, more formally known as the AFP Medical Center, following the relief of at least two high-ranking officers over corruption allegations.
“There is a cartel that having transactions in V. Luna and our end stage is to really break it,” he said in a press conference Monday afternoon, a few hours after Malacañang announced that President Rodrigo Duterte has fired AFP Health Service Command commander Brigadier General Edwin Leo Torrelavega and V. Luna Medical Center commander Colonel Antonio Punzalan.
Galvez said he has promised the President that he will fix the system at the hospital within a month.
“’Yung mga departments and offices na very most likely involved yun talaga tatanggalin namin so this includes ‘yung staff and mga department heads,” he said.
(The staff and heads of the departments and offices involved in procurement will be removed.)
Aside from Torrelavega and Punzalan, Galvez said 20 others who are part of the procurement, delivery logistics and financial departments will be relieved and will undergo further investigation.
He also said they will coordinate with the Office of the Ombudsman and the Office of the Solicitor General in building a strong case against those involved.
Systemic corruption
Galvez said corruption at the military hospital is systemic and has been going on for a long time.
“The infraction was made in 2016 or even beyond pa during previous administration. The problem is systemic, meaning kahit na sinong tao ilagay mo doon will be eaten by the system (whoever is assigned there will be eaten by the system),” Galvez said in a press conference at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said Monday that President Duterte ordered the relief and court martial proceedings against Torrelavega, Punzalan and several others.
He said Torrelavega was relieved over command responsibility.
“As the commander of the headquarters service command, he should be knowledgeable of what his command is doing and also the failure of the command will also be his failure. The command and responsibility is very relative of what is happening in the unit, in this case he failed to administer diligently and prevent corruption being undertaken in the health services command,” he said.
Galvez said the relief stemmed from the report submitted by the AFP to the Office of the President following an investigation into at least five alleged anomalous transactions entered into by the command.
Complaint
In May 2018, Galvez said they received a complaint from the Office of the President about alleged irregularities in the procurement of medical supplies and equipment amounting to P1.49 million at the said medical facility.
The amount involved is seen to increase to at most P200 million as they were still investigating 12 more fictitious transactions.
Galvez said the complaint prompted them to conduct an investigation into several transactions which he refused to elaborate so as not to jeopardize the court martial proceedings.
Galvez said the relieved officers were placed on a holding status at the military camp.
“In June we gave the result to intelligence group, dalawa findings ng ISAFP. Systemic (meaning) for example ‘yung logistics at finance officer is involved in the planning, siya rin ang member ng canvass committee siya rin member ng acceptance committee meaning sa kanya lahat dumadaan, meaning systemic, walang transparency, walang check and balance. With that kaya namin sinabing systemic the logistics and the management and fiscal officer, silang dalawa from the start up to the end up to the delivery sila ang nandoon,” said Galvez.
He also said during his visit to the soldiers who were wounded during the Marawi siege, he found that despite having a budget, it takes long to procure prostheses.
He said he was informed that a sole supplier or bidder is allegedly monopolizing the entire process and there there seems to be a cartel of suppliers.
“So with that I had it investigated further, we had a result na may mga institution na nandun and they have been the supplier of the V. Luna ever since and some of those they have Ombudsman cases,” said Galvez.
“’Yung mejo masakit sa amin ‘yung prosthesis, there is an allegation that it only cost P330,000 pero ang price ng isang supplier is P1.4 million,” he added.
(There is an allegation that a prosthesis costs only P300,000, but one supplier provides it for P1.4 million.) (SunStar Philippines)