MANILA, Philippines — Columnist Ramon Tulfo won’t apologize to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) administration and its staff over an incident at the hospital’s emergency room last week.
“I won’t apologize for my actions at the PGH, but I would like to apologize to the patients who got agitated from my outburst,” Tulfo said yesterday in a telephone interview with The STAR.
“The incident started with the video-taking, because I need it in the future for legal purpose. I was taking a video of the child and not of the hospital and its operations,” he said.
“The doctor was insisting on implementing a PGH policy of no video-taking. But that’s a public place,” he explained.
Tulfo drew criticism after he posted on social media a video of the doctor whom he accused of declining to provide medical attention to the child he brought.
He also slammed PGH resident doctors and interns, claiming that most of them are “rich kids” who do not care about the poor patients.
He also alleged that most of his critics are doctors or other medical workers who “have big ego.”
“Let the people judge the video,” he said.
Earlier, the PGH demanded a public apology from Tulfo for saying that the hospital withheld medical intervention to a child whom the columnist brought after his driver bumped her in Navotas.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the behavior of Mr. Ramon Tulfo as completely unacceptable and unbecoming especially from a supposedly veteran journalist seeking help from the victim his vehicle had bumped,” read the statement sent to The STAR yesterday.
“In light of all the facts, a public apology from Mr. Ramon Tulfo is warranted and a commitment to take down as soon as possible the video taken at PGH as well as all objectionable related posts,” it added.
In its statement, the PGH administration released its version of what happened supposedly to invalidate the claim that the victim was not accorded the medical care due her. It also maintained that the doctor criticized by Tulfo was not remiss in his duties.
According to the hospital, Tulfo and his team were directed to the triage desk upon their arrival to assess the patient of the severity of the illness.
It said the columnist started berating the doctor after the latter admonished his team from taking videos, which is against the policy of the hospital.