The Department of Health yesterday slapped a three-month suspension each against two doctors and a nurse involved in the controversial rectal procedure involving a gay man at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.
Regional health director Susana Madarieta said surgeons Philip Leo Arias and Max Joseph Montecillo, as well as circulating nurse Carmenia Sapio, were preventively suspended pending the hearing of the formal complaints against them.
Madarieta said she ordered the preventive suspension of the three based on the findings of an in-house investigation conducted by the government-run hospital into the controversy that has caught worldwide attention.
The health officials hastened to clarify that the preventive suspension does not mean the three are guilty and is without prejudice to the outcome of their formal hearings.
The case stemmed from the removal of a perfume can from the rectum of gay florist Genaro Jorolan which was videotaped without his knowledge and consent and spread worldwide by way of YouTube, the Internet video-sharing website.
The perfume cane was lodged in the rectum of Jorolan following a night of kinky sex with a stranger on New Year’s Eve.
The video, running about three minutes on YouTube, showed doctors and nurses laughing, clapping, and in effect making fun of Jorolan and his predicament. One of the doctors was seen spraying the can around the operating room following its successful extraction, to the amusement of the crowd in the room.
Guiller Ceniza, the lawyer of Jorolan, welcomed the suspensions and said he will be filing an administrative case against the same doctors and nurses today, also with the Department of Health.
Ceniza said Jorolan will seek a public apology from those involved and will call for a revamp of the management and staff at the hospital to ensure only ethical professionals remain at the facility.
The lawyer said his client would also ask for the retrieval and destruction of all the unauthorized videotapes taken of the procedure.
Last Monday, the Office of the Ombudsman approved the upgrading of the complaint against the medical staff at VSMMC after finding reasonable ground to charge seven doctors, five nurses and two clinical instructors for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Except for the two clinical instructors who are not government personnel, the rest would face administrative charges for grave misconduct, the Ombudsman said in its final evaluation report on the incident.
The five other doctors aside from Arias and Montecillo are Marlowe Parreno, Angelo Linawagan, Joseph Alfred de Leon, Joanne Mae Merilles, and Serapio T. Salazar.
The Ombudsman identified the four other nurses aside from Sapio as Isabelita Remulta, Consuelo Tecling, Ida Sumayang and Rosemarie Villareal.
The two clinical instructors were identified as a certain A. Oplado of the University of Southern Philippines and Ramon Penley Pandaan of Southwestern University. ( with Rizzi Ann Cerrera and Annie Hazel Basada, UP Tacloban Masscom Interns/JST )