Dr. Lydia Depra Ramos, Western Visayas regional director of the Department of Health, said Local Government Units should not entertain or allow voluntary surgical contraception to be conducted by providers who are not accredited by the DOH.

In a radio message to Gov. Joseph Marañon, Ramos said it is the responsibility of the LGUs to police their ranks.

The National Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating the death of a woman in Bago City who was operated on during a medical mission by the Marie Stopes group in November.

Also in a radio message to the governor in April, Ramos said it has been the policy of the DOH to accredit providers of voluntary surgical contraception since 1986. "According to our roster of accredited providers, Marie Stopes is not one of those," she said.

In response to the radio message of Ramos, Marañon, on April 29 this year, issued a memorandum to all city and municipal mayors informing them of what she had said about the Population Services Pilipinas Inc., (Marie Stopes), a non government organization based in Cebu that performs female voluntary surgical sterilization services.

It was observed at the Don Salvador Benedicto Memorial Hospital in La Carlota City and the Cadiz District Hospital that procedures in the conduct of sterilization were not in accordance with DOH standards, the governor said in his memo.

The office had received verbal reports from health personnel of the different local government units of certain complaints that arose from the process like hematomas, infected wounds and failure to ligate, he said. Bago City Health Officer Pilar Mabasa yesterday submitted to the NBI the medical reports on what Perceveranda Sioco of Barangay Sagasa, Bago City, underwent while under the care of the Marie Stopes medical mission at the Bago District Hospital.

Raymundo Cioco had asked the NBI to investigate the cause of the death of his wife, Perceveranda.

He told the NBI that she underwent tubal ligation in the afternoon of Nov. 25 and died at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital on Nov. 28 from septic shock and generalized peritonitis.

Records submitted to the NBI by Mabasa yesterday showed that Perceveranda underwent surgery conducted by Dr. Aileen Apurillo of the Mary Stopes group at 2:20 p.m. of Feb. 25 at the Bago District Hospital.

When Apurillo opened the patient to conduct the bilateral tubal ligation she saw that there were adhesions and did not conduct the ligation, Mabasa said. Perceveranda was never ligated, it was an open-and-close case, Mabasa said.

The patient returned to the hospital at 9:30 p.m. of the same day complaining of stomach pains and Apurillo gave her Kremil S, Mabasa said.

Based on the complaint of the patient Kremil S and methanamic acid were the appropriate drugs, Mabasa said.

The patient allegedly left the Bago District Hospital on Nov. 26 without permission.

NBI Bacolod head Philip Pecache said Perceveranda was brought to the CLMMRH when her pain was not relieved at the Bago District Hospital.

Bago Mayor Janet Torres said the directed Mabasa to inform the governor on what happened to Perceveranda. Before what happened to Perceveranda there had been no complaints about ligation procedures conducted by Marie Stopes in Bago City, Torres said.

Mabasa said she was preparing a letter explaining what happened to the Provincial Health Officer and the governor.

The memorandum of the governor said "There are certain cases where there were a little complications of what Marie Stopes was doing but there was no evidence yet to prove that. We are asking actually the provincial health officer about it," Mabasa said.

The memorandum of Marañon did not say we were not allowed to deal with Marie Stopes, she said.

The women who undergo tubal ligation request to have it done on them, Dr. Mabasa does not campaign for tubal ligation, Torres said.

She said Mary Stopes was paying for the expenses of the Sioco family following the death of Perceveranda.

The mayor said she informed the Mary Stopes group that from now on she will not allow them to conduct their medical mission in the Bago District Hospital or anywhere in Bago City.

NBI special investigator Ed Kawada who is investigating the case of Sioco said the NBI will get expert medical opinions to determine whether the patient got proper medical attention or not, before deciding on whether to file charges.

Pecache said that even if no tubal ligation was conducted, just in the fact that the doctor explored the physical body of a person, something should have been done for the patient. He said they will summon Apurillo to hear her side.

Pecache said he did not know if the family of Perceveranda would agree to settle the case with the Marie Stopes group. The NBI is just doing its job by conducting the investigation, he said.

If the family settles the case, that would be beyond our control, he said.*CPG

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