3 men nabbed for using bogus papers to get free medicines from NKTI

MANILA, Philippines—Three men were arrested late Tuesday afternoon after they got P10,000 worth of free medicine from the pharmacy of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon City allegedly using fake documents.

The suspects, identified as Johnny Asug and Alexander Jacinto, both employees of a carwash in Caloocan City; and Redgie Palacio, 30, a vendor, of Panghulo in Malabon City, were turned over to the Quezon City Police District Kamuning station after they were accosted by the hospital’s security personnel.

The policemen also confiscated 18 boxes of ipratropium salbutamol duavent, a nebulizer solution, from the three men.

SPO1 Jose Soriano, case investigator, said the incident started at around 3 pm, Tuesday, when NKTI security guard Ismael Postio noticed Asug and Jacinto presenting documents at the pharmacy department of the hospital along East Avenue in Barangay Central.

Postio was asked by pharmacists to pursue the duo, who were then on their way out of the hospital with P10,000 worth of the medicine, after they allegedly used a falsified collection and credit document. The document supposedly bore a forged signature of NKTI executive director Marco Antonio Cabrera.

When Postio caught up with Asug and Jacinto, they had already handed over the bag of medicine to Palacio, who had been waiting outside the hospital. NKTI security personnel immediately accosted the three men and turned them over to the custody of the Kamuning police station.

Palacio denied involvement in the incident and said he never went inside the NKTI. But the two car wash employees tagged him as the alleged brains behind the scam and the source of the fake documents.

Palacio told the INQUIRER that he and his companions were merely asked by a stranger to “redeem” the free medicine from the NKTI pharmacy department as a favor. It was the stranger, Palacio said, who had given them the fake documents.

Asked if they weren’t ever curious as to why the “stranger” did not want to obtain the medicine himself, Palacio said he never asked. “He was asking a favor. I could not refuse that?” he explained.

He claimed he was just at the wrong place and time.

Soriano said the suspects, who remain detained at the Kamuning police station holding cell, will be charged with estafa through falsification of public document in the city prosecutor’s office.