‘Military hospital fiasco to open can of worms’

MANILA, Philippines — A number of officers and enlisted personnel are eagerly waiting for the court martial of officials recently dismissed from the Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical (AFP) Center in V. Luna, Quezon City, claiming that this will open a can of worms.

But the AFP Inspector General under Lt. Gen. Rafael Valencia has yet to convene the general court martial proceedings against Brig. Gen. Edwin Leo Torrelavega, former head of the AFP Health Services Command; and Col. Antonio Punzalan, dismissed commander of the V. Luna Medical Center, among others.

“The proceedings will (expose) already embedded graft and corrupt practices in V. Luna,” a source at Camp Aguinaldo, the AFP headquarters, said.

He described the practice of ghost deliveries at V. Luna as an institutionalized practice and claimed that whoever gets to head the military hospital would be consumed by the rotten system.

Military hospitals, like V. Luna, are most prone to the illegal act of ghost deliveries because they mostly deal and handle  consumables that can be easily justified through fake delivery receipts, he said.

Another source said V. Luna hospital, for the longest time, is being used by the military leadership as “clearing house” to liquidate unused millions of funds.

He explained that in clearing unused funds, suppliers at V. Luna will do all the paperwork for fake deliveries, the amount of which equals the fund sent by the military leadership, for clearing.

“The practice involves certain percentage – 20 percent for the supplier of ghost medical deliveries, 10 percent for the people in V. Luna and the remaining 70 percent will go back to where it came from, or ’return to sender’,“ he said.

The suppliers of these ghost medical supplies usually come out clean with two percent out of the 20 percent, after paying all the necessary taxes and other expenditures for the ghost deliveries, complete with official receipts, the source added.

In the case of Torrelavega and Punzalan, while they may not be directly involved in this practice, they are liable because this wrongdoing took place under their watch, the source said.

“For the longest time, (ghost deliveries) have been happening at V. Luna and other military hospitals. How can the (Commission on Audit) account for (the ghost deliveries)? These are disposables and the only available proof that these medical supplies have been delivered and accounted for are the official receipts,” he said.

A military officer claimed that Torrelavega and Punzalan will drag others into the V. Luna fund mess, once the court martial proceedings begin.