Panel recommends charges against Cebu maternity house over baby taping

An inter-agency panel has recommended criminal, civil and administrative sanctions against the Cebu Puericulture Center and Maternity House where a newborn baby boy had a pacifier taped into his mouth earlier this year. According to a Monday report by GMA Cebu's Nikko Sereno, the Regional Subcommittee on the Welfare of Children was convinced the maternity house violated standards of care for patients, and that  the maternity ward did not properly breastfeed the infants. However, the panel itself could not file the charges since its function was merely fact-finding. It would be up to the interested parties to pursue charges. However, the maternity house claimed that it had reached a settlement with the baby's mother, Jasmine Badocdoc. In an official communication sent to the Department of Health, the maternity house claimed that Badocdoc had accepted financial recompense from the maternity house. Also, both parties had supposedly agreed that no one was to blame, not even the duty nurse, for the taping of the child's mouth. The document was signed by Badocdoc and Florencia Streegan, president of the maternity house's board of trustees. But Badocdoc, citing a gag order from her lawyer, neither confirmed nor denied if the signature was hers Also, her live-in partner and the baby's father, Ryan Noval, found the reports of a settlement disturbing, adding he would not agree to it. Meanwhile, Madyll Robinta, lawyer for the Department of Health's Central Visayas office, said that a settlement would not affect the inter-agency task force's findings, which have been sent to the DOH's central office in Manila. — Joel Locsin/DVM, GMA News