Transplants,
baby-makers, canisters

What’s the matter with our medical profession? It seems so many scandals are cropping up where its practitioners are involved. We are still in the thick of investigations on an issue of ethics and professionalism involving some doctors in Cebu, who made fun of the kinky problem of a patient they were operating on. Now we are confronted with another shameful issue, one that is of international interest, because it involves what is tagged as health fraud perpetrated also by some doctors.

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Of course we cannot generalize, we certainly have more good and decent practitioners who do their work as a mission and with the noblest of intention. But the few rotten eggs are spoiling things for the good ones. Only a few months ago, we had the scam that focused on PhilHealth claims. This time, the amount is much, much bigger, since the estimate is $100 million! This reportedly involved false or padded claims against the Tricare program where retirees from military bases could claim medical benefits.

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The culprits probably did not reckon with the tenacity of American investigators. Already 37 doctors have allegedly been pinpointed, and one has already been arrested in Guam. This kind of news is sure to attract attention everywhere because our medical professionals are supposed to be in demand in many countries. This comes on top of another scandal a little over a year ago when we also got slammed for the discovery of cheating in the Nurses board examination. In that case, we had to go and shame ourselves further by sending a representative to the agency supervising foreign nurses in the U.S., who insisted on the acceptance of those who took the leaked examinations, and even threatening the officials there!

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Recently, another bad name was added to the rest with the exposure of the “Kidney market” where poor and indigent people were convinced to sell their kidneys to foreign patients needing transplants. In that scandal, doctors were also found to be involved, in fact, it was hinted that they were the ones who got the bigger cut from the cost of the kidneys. Now that we are in a masochistic mood, let us recall also the other scandal about young Filipino girls being paid to be “baby makers” for childless foreigners. I heard an investigation on that, as well as the kidney affair, had been started, but your guess is as good as mine as to whether either will prosper.

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By the way, the Health Department seems to be really upset over the Cebu canister case and Secretary Francisco Duque was reported as saying that close circuit TV should be installed in all operating rooms so surgeons and their staff will be careful of their behavior while performing operations. But what if the tapes later get into the wrong hands? This is a risk, especially if celebrities or VIPs are the ones going under the knife. They could be blackmail material, too. Think of something else, Doc.

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Just as interesting to watch out for are the much publicized tax evasion cases filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue against some show business personalities. Yesterday it was reported that charges against two of the bigwigs, Judy Ann Santos and Richard Gomez, are about to be filed already. Hmmm. Didn’t we hear about this years ago? The report came out almost simultaneously with one from the U.S. about a businessman who was sentenced to five years in jail for tax evasion. But it’s different here, you know.

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A triumphant Hillary Clinton was all over the papers yesterday, together with the report that she quickly gathered some $10 million in contributions to her campaign. The amount was happily welcomed, since, obviously, her group was scraping the bottom of the campaign barrel already. She cannot seem to match the kitty of her opponent B.O. (Barack Obama to his fans). Where does all his funds come from, do you think? His campaign seems to be fuelled by unlimited millions. It surely did not come from Africa, which, like RP, is also a poor nation. What I mean is we are a rich country, only impoverished by shameless graft and corruption.

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The Department of Science and Technology has declared that biofuels did not cause the rice crisis. Of course not, the industry is just starting. Wait until those cultivating it find out how much more money they can make from it than sticking to planting rice which is never fun, as even school children know.*

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