Governor to press raps over hospital drug shortage

DIGOS CITY, Philippines—Davao del Sur Gov. Claude Bautista has vowed to pursue charges against officials or staffers of Davao del Sur Provincial Hospital here if they are found liable for medicine hoarding or trying to rake in commissions.

Bautista said an investigation was recently launched amid complaints of lack of medicines and supplies at the hospital, which services mainly poor patients.

It was found that the medicines and supplies were being hoarded.

Speaking to reporters, Bautista said the probe led to a pit within the hospital compound, where batches of expired medicines and supplies had been found.

“What I can’t understand was why these were not dispensed,” a visibly irked Bautista said. “Could this be an act of sabotage to put the provincial government in a bad light?”

He said he started wondering about the lack of medicine at the hospital because as soon as he replaced Douglas Cagas as governor, he had released funds to procure medicines and supplies.

But even then, complaints about the nonavailability of medicines and supplies at the hospital persisted, he said.

This was the reason, he ordered an investigation, the governor said.

“We found that medicines and supplies were deliberately hidden until they expired,” he said.

Bautista said three previous bidding processes for the purchase of some P10 million in additional supplies had failed because some officials involved in these wanted kickbacks.

“A majority of the bidders jacked up their prices by up to 40 percent and this was due to commission-takers,” he said. Eldie Aguirre, Inquirer Mindanao