Lung center director faces graft charges

The director of the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) is in hot water after graft charges were filed against him in the Office of the Ombudsman for alleged anomalous transactions.

Aside from the graft charges, an administrative complaint was also filed against Dr. Fernando Melendres with the Civil Service Commission (CSC).

It was learned that the charges were separately filed with the Ombudsman and the CSC by Guillermo Madlang-awa, LCP Employees Association president and LCP employee Genoveva Hipol.

When sought to comment on the complaints, Melendres said he was ready to answer all the charges of Hipol and Madlang-awa and prove that he did not engage in any wrongdoing.

Melendres was accused of authorizing the construction of a parking area inside the LCP compound allegedly worth P3 million. The project, Madlang-awa charged, did not go through a public bidding.

Madlang-awa stressed that the costly parking area was unnecessary since they already had a parking lot that accommodated the parking needs of the hospital staff and patients.

Melendres defended the parking area, saying that the hospital did not shell out a single centavo for the project.

He explained that a group of donors volunteered to shoulder putting up the parking area to provide hospital personnel a convenient and secure place to park their cars that was near the main building of the LCP.

Since the project was a private undertaking, Melendres pointed out that it did not need to go through a public bidding. He also denied that the project cost reached P3 million.

Hipol, on the other hand, claimed that Melendres entered into an alleged illegal contract with a drug supply firm identified as Life Support System, Inc. (LSSI), for the purchase of pharmaceutical products for the LCP.

Hipol said the purchased drugs were " (priced) higher than those offered by other drug companies."

Melendres admitted being an incorporator of LSSI but stressed that he had divested his shares in the company in 1999 when he was appointed LCP director.

Melendres explained that the LCP only had one supply deal with LSSI worth some P112,000 in the early days of his tenure. He said the deal was an emergency purchase since at the time of his appointment, no drug supply company wanted to deal with LCP due to unpaid debts to drug suppliers amounting to P8 million carried over from the time of his predecessor.

He stressed that since he knew the new owners of LSSI who were his friends, the company came to the LCP’s rescue and agreed to give them a "tide over" supply of essential drugs.

He also denied that the drugs purchased from LSSI were in anyway overpriced, saying that the mark-up of the drugs was average.