Woman charged with illegal practice of medicine
CEBU CITY—The police filed charges against a 56-year-old woman who pretended to be a physician and performed a botched butt augmentation on two women in Barangay Kinasang-an in this city.
Gloria Rabor, 56, was charged with illegal practice of medicine in violation of Medical Act of 1959 and estafa in violation of Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) and illegal possession of drug paraphernalia.
Rabor, who was detained at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG-7), declined to issue a statement.
Rabor was arrested on Wednesday in an entrapment operation conducted by CIDG-7 personnel in her house in Barangay Kinasang-an, which she also used as her clinic.
The raid stemmed from a complaint filed by two women aged 34 and 37 from Bohol province who said that Rabor conducted a botched buttock augmentation on them.
Rabor allegedly charged P60,000 each in professional fee for the buttock augmentation. She also asked P11,000 for the nose lift of one of the women. The buttock augmentation, which used collagen, was done in three sessions.
The two women, who are both married and asked not to be named, told the CIDG-7 that after the procedure, their buttocks became infected.
One of the women said that when they complained about the infection, Rabor only told them to apply alugbati leaves on their buttocks.
Chief Insp. Fermin Armendarez III, CIDG-7 team leader, said Rabor reportedly advised the two women to take antibacterial medication.
The two women then went to the CIDG-7 to complain, prompting the policemen to conduct an entrapment operation.
The CIDG team found some substance, which was believed to be collagen, some syringes, vials containing unidentified liquid and gloves, among others. They also recovered the marked money amounting to P1,500, along with sheets of paper cut into the size of paper bills, used in the entrapment operation.
Armendarez said Rabor failed to show documents to prove that she was a licensed medical doctor when they arrested her inside her house.
Rabor’s name also didn’t appear in the database of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) office in Cebu.
But Dan Malayang, director of the PRC Cebu regional office, said he still had to check with their Permanent Examination Registration or Record Card in their head office in Manila.
Malayang said there were instances when there were records in Manila although the names did not appear in the Cebu office records.
