Mental hospital chief charges P150 per media interview

Give to charity, give to the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) — and make sure you give at least P150.

This is the "fee" NCMH Director Bernardo Vicente allegedly asks from journalists seeking to interview him regarding the state of affairs at the hospital.

The STAR learned that Vicente asks any journalist to pay the fee before a request for an interview is granted. Vicente refuses to conduct telephone interviews. His staff instructs journalists to fax a letter asking for an interview to his office at the NCMH compound in Mandaluyong City.

A staffer at Vicente’s office identified only as Ding said the P150 "interview fee" could be regarded as a "donation" to the cash strapped mental institution.

Vicente began shunning media interviews after a controversy erupted early this year regarding the death of 12 NCMH patients during a cholera outbreak in the hospital.

In interviews just prior to the cholera outbreak, Vicente bemoaned the NCMH’s lack of financial support from the national government. According to Vicente, there wasn’t enough money to properly feed, shelter and provide treatment for the NCMH patients, most of whom are indigents unable to afford beter care in the more expensive mental wards of private hospitals. The NCMH is one of the public hospitals run by the Department of Health (DOH).

Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit could not be reached for comment on the propriety of Vicente’s "interview fee" yesterday. However, DOH insiders privy to Vicente’s interview tactics said the fee the NCMH chief was charging per interview may land him in hot water.

They said Vicente, as the administrator of a government-run hospital and a public servant, should not be charging extra fees for interviews or consultations regarding his duties as chief of the NCMH.