UST alumni group hits hospital incorporation

The president of the University of Santo Tomas Medical Alumni Association of Southern California (USTMAASC) said yesterday the organization would stop sending donations and funding for any project of the UST Hospital Inc. (USTH) until the controversy surrounding its incorporation has been cleared and settled.

Dr. Carmelita Co-Casquejo, president of USTMASSC, said their more than 5,000 members, including those from the UST Medical Alumni Foundation International (USTMAFI), are saddened by the "scrupulous and improper dealings of UST, whereby the rector, representing the university, gave a free 50-year lease of all assets of the hospital to USTH, of which the rector himself is also the chairman of the board of trustees."

A statement from the group said the USTH Inc. is now a private corporation that is distinct and separate from UST and the Dominican Order of Preachers. It was formed by nine Dominican priests and three laymen who each contributed P100,000 equity in their own private capacities, the group said.

Fr. Tamerlane Lana, a UST rector, signed a long-term lease of all the clinical facilities and equipment of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery in favor of USTH.

Co-Casquejo said USTMAASC members, "who are proud and grateful graduates of the UST medical school, are outraged by the sleight-of-hand maneuvers regarding the hospital."

"We are aware that ownership of the hospital has been changed and transferred to private individuals without the mandate of the Dominican Master General under very questionable circumstances," she said.

Co-Casquejo noted USTH also announced it would raise P3.5 billion to fund an expansion program "to make profits."

"The medical school of UST will then become a profit institution rather than a training center for medical specialists which was the original intention of the UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery when it was organized more than 50 years ago," the group said.