4 doctors in Davao Occidental seek police help after receiving death threats

DIGOS CITY, Davao del Sur, Philippines – Four government doctors assigned at the provincial district hospital in Jose Abad Santos, Davao Occidental, have sought security assistance after they claimed to have received threatening text messages this week.

On Tuesday, the four doctors—Dennis Ubas Pascua, Diona Mar Cabrera, Mary Christine Rojo Daligdig, and Rachel Jucom – met with Davao del Sur Board member Nonito Llanos III, the officer-in-charge governor, over the threats they received.

Davao Occidental is a newly created province out of Davao del Sur and is still being administered by officials of the mother province.

During the meeting, the doctors showed Llanos the text messages they received.

One of the text messages indicated that the sender was furious because the doctors have not been regularly reporting for duty.

“You want to be buried here? Be careful,” a message sent in Visayan said.

Senior Supt. Michael John Dubria, Davao del Sur police director, said the police have taken the threats against the four doctors seriously and have launched an investigation while advising the doctors on the security precaution they could take.

“We took immediate action about this matter and we adopted precautionary measures to protect the doctors from possible harm,” he said.

Supt. Nemesio de Quia, Jr., head of the Davao del Sur police mobile group, said he met with the four doctors and assured them of police assistance.

De Quia said the police have started an investigation to determine who were behind the threats against Pascua, Cabrera, Daligdig, and Jucom.