Relieved AFP hospital chief reinstated

Brigadier General Normando Sta. Ana (left), Commander, Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical Center. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Armed Forces of the Philippines has reinstated the head of the AFP Medical Center, months after he was relieved from his post over a complaint for his purported role in the allegedly anomalous purchase of medical supplies worth P80 million.

Brigadier General Normando Sta. Ana was relieved from his post alongside three staff officers last October based on a complaint by a certain Renato Villafuerte.

Sta. Ana was reinstated effective last Monday.

“After a thorough investigation, the complaints against the aforementioned officers were dismissed for lack of evidence to support the allegations and because nobody testified to substantiate the complaints,” the AFP said in a statement on Wednesday.

The complainant turned out to be a “fictitious person.”

Villafuerte earlier filed a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman for violating procurement procedures.

Other officers who were sacked last October were his former special disbursing officer Lieutenant Colonel Florencio Ritchie Capulong, Management and Fiscal Office chief Major Neil Bugarin and acting Assistant Chief of Staff for Logistics Colonel Rogelio del Rio.

“Rest assured that the AFP is committed to improve the medical services for its soldiers and enhance the systems in the hospitals,” the AFP said.

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