FDA: Clinic offering cancer cure to stay closed

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will not allow the reopening of a Tarlac medical clinic, which has promoted cures for serious ailments including cancer, after it was shut down in August for manufacturing and selling unregistered health products.

In a statement, FDA said it turned down the Aug. 20 motion for reconsideration filed by Dr. Farrah Agustin-Bunch Natural Medical Center in an Oct. 2 resolution, after a court-approved search of Bunch’s clinic at Victoria town on Aug. 17, led to the confiscation of P800,000 worth of unregistered health products.

The FDA permanently revoked the center’s license to operate as a food manufacturer and imposed a fine of more than P1 million on the center for selling unregistered products and for operating a pharmacy without a license.

Neither Bunch nor her American husband, Jack, were around during the FDA operation in August. The search warrant was received by Jack Bunch’s sister, Tara.

But in her Facebook page, Bunch claimed in September that FDA Director General Nela Charade Puno denied her due process “in a mad rush to pass judgment and inflict punishment upon me.”

Bunch complained about the “outright confiscation of my livelihood.”

But Puno said “any sale or offer for sale of any unregistered health product violates the law.”—TONETTE OREJAS