April 18, 2002

     From August 22 to September 20, 2001, I wrote a series of columns after the Commission on Audit (COA) uncovered irregularities in the purchase of hospital equipment intended for the West Visayas State University Hospital (now Medical Center, WVSUMC). The inquiry was requested by a group of College of Medicine alumni and volunteer consultants of the Hospital. In its August 5, 2001 issue, the Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Dr. Louie Tirador, president of the Alumni Association as saying "they were not accusing anybody in particular but merely wanted the wrongdoing investigated and those responsible punished".

     I got a copy of that COA report, did some e-mail and phone interviews, obtained other pertinent documents from both the Alumni Association and the hospital management and wrote my own take. It is important to note that I tried to get the side of the hospital management, particularly Dr. Ramon Guerra, the hospital director. Dr. Guerra faxed me some documents for my own perusal, the content of which was strikingly similar to what the Alumni Association sent me, public documents, I suppose. I tried to get Dr. Guerra to explain his side but he said at that time his lawyer has advised him not to talk to the media. It was flattering but I still do not consider myself as part of the media.

     Half a year later, I e-mailed the hospital management again (the e-mail address is a general address and I'm not sure who opens and reads what's in it). I got no response after a month of waiting. I e-mailed Dr. Ronnie Samoro (he responded) who spearheaded the alumni and consultants group and I also talked to my own sources. I need to respond to a regular reader who inquired what is now happening with the case and if I've been following-up on it (I take care of my loyal readers, all ten of you out there, hopefully more).

"Maybe it's too much to expect something after just seven months. Some people have waited in line longer than that to have their first taste of Dunkin' Donuts."

     The alumni and consultants group which called itself "Concerned Consultants, Alumni and Taxpayers at West Visayas State University and the WVSU Hospital," submitted the documents regarding the alleged irregularities to the Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas on August 10, 2001. The documents consisted of the special audit report of the Commission on Audit and the complaints earlier submitted to University officials but which were not acted upon. I got a copy of the letter to the Ombudsman as well as the close to a hundred signatures of alumni, residents and consultants.

     "We can no longer wait. The University officials are too slow to act on our long-standing concerns," said Dr. Ronnie Samoro as quoted by the Philippine Daily Inquirer in its August 13, 2001 issue. So how slow is slow? Is seven months of waiting with no apparent response from the Ombudsman's office any faster? If you believe that any conclusion to this issue, whether in favor of the hospital or the alumni group, is near the horizon, you better believe otherwise. Let me put it this way - I'd rather believe in Santa Claus, Darna and that I could be the long-lost grandson of the King of Spain.

     "The papers are with the Ombudsman and probably passing through government red tape and hopefully not a delaying tactic," Dr. Samoro wrote in a reply to my e-mail recently. "At least we learned something from this exercise - the government is not that serious in investigating perceived irregularities. It would rather sit comfortably than open some pandora's boxes not knowing how deep the problem will involve. As they say "justice delayed is justice denied." As for us, we have grown weary hoping for the right reaction from the right people."

     Dr. Samoro ended his e-mail with this not-too-encouraging note - "Good luck to the hospital. Sorry, at least we tried." No matter how you dissect that, it still reads as "giving-up" to me.

     On the same Inquirer issue I mentioned earlier, Dr. Lourdes Arañador, president of the University, said she would try to bring Dr. Guerra and his critics to a dialogue to patch things up. This was in August last year. Arañador, according to the Inquirer, said she had already given the COA report to lawyers Norberto Posecion, the University legal counsel, and Gerardo Erebaren, representing the faculty, and Dr. Cynthia Ng of the Alumni Association, for their review and recommendation. But Dr. Samoro and Dr. Tirador said Posecion might not be able to give an "unbiased assessment" of the audit report since he was Dr. Guerra’s lawyer in the two administrative cases filed against him in 1992 and 1994. Thus, the letter of complaint to the Ombudsman.

     Seven months later, what's the difference now between the University legal counsel and the Office of the Ombudsman?

     Maybe it's too much to expect something after just seven months. Some people have waited in line longer than that to have their first taste of Dunkin' Donuts.

     I was writing my response to the reader who inquired about the progress of this case, telling him the case is already with the Ombudsman and we just have to wait, when I realized it's the same as telling him we will be sending people to Mars before this case is over.

     I talked to one of my sources a couple of weeks ago and he disclosed a very interesting narrative. You don't have to believe my sources all the time but since they have never given me any false information in the past, I'd say their level of reliability is close to that of Google.com.

     My source said the Office of the Ombudsman may have dismissed the case (the COA report, as well as the letter of complaint signed by close to a hundred doctors) as having no merit, therefore no further investigation is necessary. If the complaining doctors want to pursue the case, somebody representing the group needs to file an administrative case, hire lawyers, gather witnesses and present them in a court of law. It appears nobody from the doctors' group would take up the cudgel for now. If the Ombudsman, who's supposed to investigate and punish corruption in government service, found no wrong-doing, taking the case to court would be, at best, an exercise in futility.

     But wait, my source has another twist to this story. Apparently, the hospital management has threatened (my source's term, not mine) that whoever files the administrative charges will get a counter-charge in return. Allegedly, the doctor or doctors most likely to file the case committed misdeeds of their own worthy of an administrative charge. One such practice is putting your own line or supply of medicines in a pharmacy near your clinic or a hospital and getting a share of the profit in return or getting a 'cut' for every prescription filled.

     If this unlikely scenario is true, it is becoming apparent that the case won't go any further.

     Chess players have a term for this - stalemate.

     More like checkmate, isn't it?

A little tribute to a grandmother

     We all love our grandmothers. When we were little kids, sometimes we were made to think that they loved us more than our parents did. Everytime we got our well-deserved spanking from Tatay or Nanay, we used to run to Lola's behind, as if it's some sort of a spanking shield. It worked every time.

     I was particularly close to my grandmother. While my two brothers could identify with their 'non-relative' baby-sitters, my own baby-sitter was my Lola. In fact, she was like a second mother to me, I always referred to her as Nanay.

     She was born on January 17, 1895, before Jose Rizal was put to death by firing squad, before the Philippine revolution, before World War I. She lived the horrors of World War II, the Japanese occupation and endured my naughtiness as a kid. She lived all of the 20th century. She and Lolo bore 9 children, including my mother. Her children all became professionals.

     She was a church-going, very kind-hearted woman, loved by everybody who knew her. I last talked to her two years ago. She could barely see by then, but could still recognize my voice. Before I left, she drew an imaginary cross on my back murmuring 'God will take care you'. That was the last time she did that to me, something she's been doing ever since I can remember.

     My grandmother died peacefully in her sleep last April 2, 2002. She was 107 years old. We'll miss her.

More on cellular phones

     Two columns ago, I wrote about the popularity of cellular phones and text messaging in the Philippines, particularly Iloilo City. I tried dialing random cellphone numbers over the weekend and it proved to me that it's not only the moneyed ones who own cellular phones. All the messages at the other end of the line said, "The subscriber cannot be rich!".

Dinagyang Reunion?

     Manang Joyce Jaen (1990), in an e-mail recently, suggested if we could have the meeting of US-based alumni in Iloilo to coincide with the Dinagyang festivites on January 23 to 24, 2003. "This will be a good time to go back to iloilo see friends & relatives there and at the same time experience once again Iloilo's #1 cultural event." So what do you say? Have you planned your vacation yet?

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     The author's e-mail address is at drgarcia@wvsumedaa.com

     All views expressed on this column and any other by-lined articles on this site are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organization or its members. For comments, please e-mail the author.