MANILA, Philippines–“We are standing by the statement earlier of our admission staff that we have no records in our system that former Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado was confined in our hospital.”
This was the statement to the Inquirer by Dr. Maribeth de los Santos, director of the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay (UERM) Memorial Medical Center, on Aurora Boulevard in Quezon City following claims by spokespersons of Vice President Jejomar Binay that Mercado was admitted to the hospital last month.
De los Santos confirmed that Mercado had requested a certification from the hospital that he was not admitted to the hospital on Oct. 1-4.
She said UERM declined to issue a certification to Mercado because he had no hospital records.
“How can we issue a certification to someone who was not our patient,” De los Santos told the Inquirer in an interview at her office on Tuesday afternoon.
Will obey subpoena
De los Santos was also asked if hospital officials had identified the doctor who supposedly signed the medical records of Mercado released by Rep. Toby Tiangco and lawyer JV Bautista, both spokesmen of the Vice President.
“They were photocopies, it’s difficult to ascertain their authenticity,” De los Santos said.
The hospital director also said hospital officials would comply if issued a subpoena by the Senate.
“We will comply if officially asked,” De los Santos said.
‘Nowhere near UERM’
The Senate blue ribbon subcommittee is looking into allegations that Binay, while serving as mayor of Makati City, had enriched himself by using dummies.
Mercado, a vice mayor under Binay, is one of the subcommittee’s witnesses.
Mercado said he wrote UERM to issue a certificate that he was never confined at the hospital following news releases issued by the camp of Binay.
“I am certain I was nowhere near your hospital, I was never there for any consultation or tests, much less confinement, whether on the dates mentioned or ever,” Mercado said in his letter addressed to UERM dated Nov. 3, 2014.
To erase doubts
“I now request you to issue a certification to declare with certainty and in order to erase all doubts if one named Ernesto Salvador Mercado, born on April 28, 1953, was the subject of the certifications/tests you issued in the name of ‘Ernesto Mercado.’”
The hospital earlier said it had no records of a confinement of a certain Ernesto Salvador Mercado on Oct. 1-4.
Mercado has challenged the Binay camp to present evidence that he was confined at UERM for a heart ailment.
“My challenge to them still stands that if they could show proof that I was confined in any hospital anywhere in the country on the dates they mentioned, I will volunteer to take back all my statements against the Vice President,” Mercado said, referring to his Senate testimony.
Claim disputed
Tiangco, Navotas representative and United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) interim president, and Bautista, UNA interim secretary general, said they had evidence to dispute Mercado’s statement that he had not been hospitalized.
UNA is Binay’s political party.
Mercado earlier denied being hospitalized to dispute allegations that Interior Secretary Mar Roxas of the ruling Liberal Party had visited him at the hospital when he was sick.
The UNA officials said an “Ernesto Mercado” was treated at UERM Memorial Medical Center for heart ailment on Oct. 1 and Oct. 4, contrary to Mercado’s statement.
They wanted Mercado’s testimony linking Binay to supposed irregularities stricken off the subcommittee records, citing his earlier statement that he would take back all his statements if Binay’s camp could show proof of his hospitalization.
Bautista claimed Mercado had been lying to the Senate and said the subcommittee hearing was “clearly one-sided.”