DOJ chief to ask NBI, BI to help locate other underground clinics

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Thursday he will ask the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to help the police find other underground clinics and to file charges against their operators if warranted.

"It seems that clandestine medical clinics catering mostly to foreign nationals have sprouted and have been operating without proper authority," Guevarra said in a message to reporters.

"Considering that they are not being supervised by the government, it is possible that the health of people who seek treatment in these illegal facilities is being compromised," he said.

Police recently raided a villa in a leisure park in Pampanga that was allegedly turned into a makeshift hospital for Chinese nationals. The alleged administrator and the alleged pharmacist of the facility were arrested and then reportedly released without charges.

Earlier this week, Makati police found an allegedly unlicensed medical facility in the city that was supposedly used for treating Chinese COVID-19 patients. The city's police chief said the clinic had no business permit and that the Chinese doctor there had no license to practice in the Philippines.

In April, local authorities in Parañaque reportedly discovered an illegal health facility exclusive for Chinese nationals and found unregistered medicines for COVID-19 and for sexually transmitted diseases.

Guevarra earlier ordered the BI to help locate the foreign nationals who may have been treated in the facility in Pampanga. The BI later said the police found no clinic record or logbook to assist in the search.

The Fontana Development Corp., (FDC) which runs the leisure park where the clinic was found, has said the raided villa was transferred and is under the control of another company: the Shidaikeji Technology Corp.

An FDC official said Shidaikeiji told them their clinic was used to attend to their own employees. A Shidaikeiji representative reportedly said they were not running a COVID-19 clinic in the villa. —AOL, GMA News