NBP doctors face relief over VIP treatment of inmates

MANILA, Philippines - Several New Bilibid Prison (NBP) doctors are facing relief for allowing the hospitalization of some high-profile inmates without the approval of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

An initial report from Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III – supervising official of the Bureau of Corrections and NBP – who conducted the initial investigation on the incidents, has recommended the relief of the doctors.

DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima confirmed she has already received the initial report and the recommendation against “a couple of doctors” she did not name pending her assessment.

“These doctors were responsible in issuing so-called emergency referrals when Baraan said, based on his initial probe, they were not really an emergency situation and therefore should have sought prior approval from me,” she told reporters in an interview yesterday.

The DOJ chief also bared there were other recommendations made by Baraan, which she said would suffice to create a fact-finding panel for further investigation. 

“The initial report should serve as a very good starting point for the expanded probe... We’re going to have really an honest-to-goodness, serious and expanded probe into this whole thing, which is really puzzling considering that most of these inmates are high-profile and believed to be moneyed drug inmates,” she explained.

Last month, convicted drug lord and Sigue Sigue Sputnik gang leader Ricardo Camata was taken to the Metropolitan Hospital in Manila due to lung ailment. He was allegedly entertained by a starlet and some dancers in his hospital room.

Herbert Colangco, leader of the bank robbery gang responsible for the heists in 2003 in Pampanga and Quezon City and Parañaque in 2005, was also brought to Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Alabang.

Earlier, Amin Buratong, the operator of a drug flea market in Pasig, was taken to Medical City due to recurring coronary artery disease and a liver ailment.