Mayor distances from case vs city health officers

CEBU, Philippines - Mayor Michael Rama will not intervene in the filing of criminal and administrative cases against Cebu City health officer Stella Ygonia and City Health Department’s cadaver section head Eliseo Virtucio over their alleged refusal to accept the death certificates issued by private doctor-complainant Gil Macato.

Although it was only Virtucio who refused to accept the death certificates that were prepared by Macato, Ygonia was included being the office head.

Rama said that now that the matter is already with the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, he will just wait for the action of the anti-graft investigators.

Macato used to work as medico-legal officer of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for nine years wherein he conducted about 5,000 autopsies and other kind of examinations on corpses. This made him an expert witness and appeared in court trials of various cases.

Macato currently works as “retainer doctor” of various funeral parlors in Metro Cebu and had filed cases for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees against the two city health doctors for not accepting the death certificates that he prepared.

Macato claimed that what he is doing is within the bounds of the law because he only issued death certificates of people who died without any attending doctors and he just based his findings on the testimonies of the relatives.

According to Macato, his problem only started late last year after Virtucio assumed as head of the city health’s cadaver section. During the stint of former cadaver section head Evelyn Villamor all of Macato’s prepared death certificates were approved without any questions.

Rama, meanwhile, said he is not a doctor and thus could not conclude on Virtucio’s actuations.

This is why he will just wait for the decision of the anti-graft investigators.

Macato had also implicated in the case PNP Regional Crime Laboratory Service (CLS)-7 head Nestor Sator because when he spoke during the meeting of the city health doctors and the liaison officers of funeral parlors, the police medico-legal officer did not say that Virtucio’s move was highly questionable.

The former NBI doctor had also asked the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) to revoke the licenses of the three doctors. —/JPM (FREEMAN)