Sandiganbayan suspends hospital chief, 3 others over graft charges

MANILA, Philippines – The Sandiganbayan on Wednesday granted the Ombudsman prosecutor’s request to suspend Quirino Memorial Medical Center Chief and three other employees after being found guilty of violating Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

In its ruling, the anti-graft court said QMMC Chief Angeles De Leon, nurse Luz Padua, nutritionist dietician Milagrina Jacinto and medical technology Michael Raquel will be suspended for 90 days.

The four respondents violated Section 3(e) of Republic Act (RA) No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices for the alleged illegal procurement of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine worth P44.9 million from Fernando Medical Enterprises Inc. This information on the alleged procurement of the four respondents was filed by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Based on the five-page resolution issued by Associate Justice Efren Del Cruz, Section 13 of RA 3019 stressed that it “unequivocally provides that the accused public official shall be suspended from office while the criminal prosecution is pending in court.”

“(The law) leaves no room for interpretation such that the court has neither the discretion nor duty to determine whether preventive suspension is required to prevent the accused from using his office to intimidate witnesses or frustrate his prosecution or continue committing malfeasance in office,” the resolution added.

The Sandiganbayan ordered the Department of Health to carry out the suspension of the four respondents.