DDB chair files complaint vs stem cell team

MANILA, Philippines - Dangerous Drugs Board chairman (DDB) Antonio Villar filed a complaint before the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) yesterday against a medical team that performed stem cell therapy on him and his wife last year.

Senior Superintendent Francisco Esguerra, chief of the CIDG Anti-Fraud and Commercial Crime Division, said Villar filed his complaint-affidavit after meeting with CIDG officers and the president of the Philippine Medical Association (PMA).

“We will investigate his complaint and the outcome of the investigation will be the basis of the filing of charges in court,” said Esguerra.

Villar’s lawyer Claire Pagayanan told a forum sponsored by PMA that they are looking at the culpability of a German and a Thai doctor, Thai nurses and a Filipino agent.

Pagayanan said Villar suffered from prostate enlargement due to the treatment, which cost him 16,000 euros, at a posh hotel in Mandaluyong on July 9, 2012.

The DDB chair said he was enticed by newspaper advertisements on the benefits of stem cell treatment. But he said the condition of his wife, who suffers from diabetes, also worsened after the treatment.

Esguerra said the CIDG would first establish the identity of the Filipino middleman who could help identify the foreigners behind the stem cell treatment on the Villars.

“After we get the foreigners’ identity, we will check with the Bureau of Immigration for their travel records. Then we will coordinate with our counterpart in the Interpol to check the records in their country,” he said.

PMA president Leo Olarte said it is possible that only water was injected to Villar, considering that it did nothing to improve his condition.  â€“ With Cecille Suerte Felipe