Cases on VSMMC scandal: Who’s in charge, Ombuds or DOH?

After the Black Suede controversy had pretty much settled down with the filing of charges, along comes a new one involving who has jurisdiction over the cases.

Is it the Department of Health, which has jurisdiction over the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center where the controversy happened? Or is it the Office of the Ombudsman which has jurisdiction over graft investigations involving government workers and entities?

The new controversy surfaced after the Department of Health took cognizance of the case and slapped two surgeons and a nurse with a three-month preventive suspension each.

Following that development, Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol said it is not possible for the anti-graft office and the DOH to conduct separate administrative investigations because they might arrive at conflicting findings.

Apostol said it should be decided early by both agencies as to who will conduct the administrative cases.

Apostol explained that while the Ombudsman and DOH have concurrent jurisdictions over the case, the rules provide that in cases where two agencies have such concurrent jurisdictions, the first agency to take cognizance of the case shall gain exclusive jurisdiction over it.

Apostol said the Ombudsman will coordinate with the DOH to find out who first took cognizance of the case.

However, Assistant Ombudsman Virginia Palanca Santiago said they might give way to the DOH if that is the wish of the complainant.

“ It all depends on the complainant if he submits to the DOH, ” Santiago said.

But Apostol said the proper way to do it is to confer with the DOH. “ If it is determined that we were the first to take cognizance of the case, then they will lose jurisdiction over it. “

The case had its beginnings last New Year’s Eve when a gay florist by the name of Genaro Jorolan, after a night of kinky sex with a stranger, found a can of spray perfume unceremoniously lodged in his rectum.

His predicament required a rectal procedure at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

But apparently because of the uniqueness of his situation, the medical personnel inside the operating room could not help themselves and they ended up laughing, clapping, and in effect mocking the patient.

One doctor, following the successful extraction of the offending cannister, even sprayed it around the room to show that “ it still works. “

The spray perfume carried the popular brand name “ Black Suede, “ hence the name of the controversy.

The circus to which the operation had degenerated was, however, recorded on video without the knowledge of the patient, who was under sedation. Worse, the video was later uploaded on YouTube, the video-sharing website on the Internet.

The video footage, which ran for about three minutes, swept around the globe and drew widespread condemnation, shaming a country that was exporting large numbers of its medical practitioners to high-paying but highly professional jobs abroad.

A flurry of investigations ensued, including that of the DOH and the Ombudsman.

It was the Ombudsman that actually first took cognizance of the case as in fact, it is yet on Monday that the DOH will start its formal investigation following the filing of a formal complaint by VSMMC medical director Gerardo Aquino last Tuesday.

It is also with the Ombudsman that Jorolan filed his complaint, initially docketed for fact-finding investigation but later upgraded to a formal criminal and administrative investigation.

What the VSMMC first did was a mere internal investigation, which Santiago said could not be considered a formal investigation.

Still the case will not be as simple as to who has jurisdiction because the DOH has already ordered the preventive suspensions of surgeons Philip Leo Arias and Max Joseph Montecillo, as well as circulating nurse Carmenia Sapio.

The number of respondents also vary as the Ombudsman has indicted 12 medical personnel of VSMMC — seven doctors and five nurses involved in the January 3 operation — while the DOH has only investigated six.

Those included in the Ombudsman investigation aside from Arias, Montecillo and Sapio are Drs. Marlowe Parreño, Angelo Linawagan, Joseph Alfred de Leon, Joan Mae Merilles and Serapio Salazar, and nurses Isabelita Remulta, Consuelo Tecling, Ida Sumayang and Rosemarie Villareal.

Reacting to the new controversy, DOH regional director Susana Madarietta agreed the two agencies need to consult on the matter.

Pending resolution of this controversy, however, Madarietta said the DOH will proceed with the start of its investigation on Monday and will only stop if ordered to do so and if the Ombudsman decides to take over the case. — /JST