Duterte sacks AFP officials for alleged anomalous transactions

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the relief of around 20 military officials and employees over supposedly questionable transactions at the Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical Center, also known as V. Luna Medical Center.

Among those relieved were Brig. Gen. Edwin Leo Torrelavega, commander of Armed Forces of the Philippines Health Service Command, and Col. Antonio Punzalan, commader of the V. Luna Medical Center.

The chief of management and fiscal office and the logistics office of the AFPHSC will also be relieved.

Aside from the relief, the officials will undergo court martial proceedings.

Roque said the military officials and employees of V. Luna Medical Center took part in the anomalous purchase of equipment and engaged in fraudulent transactions.

These include ghost purchases, splitting of contracts and conceiving fictitious suppliers.

“The report that they have now only involves ghost transactions, ghost deliveries worth P1,491,571 worth but there are series of transactions involving almost hundreds of millions of pesos so they will be releasing subsequent reports in due course,” Roque said.

The president’s mouthpiece said that a whistleblower exposed the alleged irregularities in V. Luna Medical Center.

“Apparently, it’s a conspiracy. It was institutional corruption in V. Luna,” Roque said.

He added that the president was “personally aggravated” when the information on corruption was confirmed.

“He’s ballistic. Only recently he ordered the sum of P50 million a month to be released to V. Luna to make sure that V. Luna will have sufficient funds to cover all medical requirements of AFP members only to find out bulk of the funds may be going to the pockets of corrupt officials of the Armed Forces,” Roque said.