Lawyer hits De Lima for ‘illegal, irresponsible’ order

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

A lawyer of one of the doctors of ex-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo branded as “illegal and irresponsible” the order of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to look for the physician based only on an online petition.

Stephen Cascolan, counsel of Dr. Antonia Carandang-Park, criticized the memorandum of De Lima dated Aug. 10, 2015 ordering NBI Director Virgilio Mendez to coordinate with the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) to take appropriate action in finding Park and her clinic.

The same memorandum also ordered Prosecutor General Claro Arellano to update her on the cases filed against Park. Both were given 20 days to give her a report.

Park is the stem cell doctor of Arroyo.
De Lima’s order stemmed from an online petition “Justice for Kate” initiated by Bernard Tan in the change.org website.

Bernard said Park had been misrepresenting herself as a “Miracle Doctor” who promised to cure his daughter, Kate, using alternative medicine. He said daughter died on July 4, 2013.

A case was then filed against Park.

In the online petition, Tan claimed that Park was facing cases and yet had resumed her clinic.

Cascolan said there were no syndicated estafa and murder charges filed against Park.

But Cascolan said, “There can never be a case for murder as Mr. Tan has never submitted any evidence to prove such and the official cause of death of Ms. Tan as given by her mother and attending physician, Dr. Anthony Leachon, is ‘SVC Syndrome secondary to Hodgkins Lymphoma, antecedent cause t/c Medipory infection; s/p Mediport Insertion.’

“If Mr. Bernard Tan insists that there was murder, his wife and attending physician should be investigated for making false statement in a public document,” he added.

To get to the bottom of the issue, Cascolan said an autopsy should be made and all attending physicians should be investigated.

He asked why De Lima allowed private prosecutors to represent the government against his client without following the requirements under the Rules of Criminal Procedure.

Cascolan also questioned why de Lima acted on Tan’s online statements and accepts these as facts even if not given under oath.

“The public needs an objective, competent, diligent, and impartial secretary of justice. By the secretary’s latest act, there is clear failure of governance in the DOJ,” he said.

He also noted that de Lima did not issue a similar order against lawmakers who transacted with alleged pork scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles despite evidence given by Napoles herself.

“No hunt down order has ever been issued. We have to ask, what really catches the DOJ’s attention? If, for whatever reason, she can no longer fulfill her public mandate in an objective manner, she should resign,” Cascolan said. Tetch Torres-Tupas