Admin raps to be lodged vs. NBP exec, docs, jail guards over Camata hospitalization

The Department of Justice has ordered the filing of administrative charges against a ranking official, two doctors, and seven jail guards of the New Bilibid Prison for recommending and allowing the hospitalization of a high-profile inmate outside the NBP without the necessary permits.

In its formal charge, the DOJ, after conducting preliminary investigation and considering a recommendation from a fact-finding committee led by Justice Secretary Francisxo Baraan III, said it found "prima facie" evidence against relieved NBP Superintendent and officer-in-charge P/Supt. Fajardo Lansangan, doctors Gloria Garcia and Ma. Cecilia Villanueva, and seven jail personnel.

The DOJ said the 10 would be charged with grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, for allowing maximum security inmate and convicted drug lord Ricardo Camata to go into an unauthorized hospitalization in Manila.

The seven jail personnel are:

Lansangan, Garcia, and Villanueva were placed under preventive suspension for 90 days or three months upon receipt of the formal charge.

The six jail guards meanwhile will be "reassigned to perform the functions of regular prison guards with the. Bureau of Corrections."

Cleared of any liability were PG2 Enrique Valenzuela, PG1 Prudencio Gascon, PG1 Joven Antolin, PG1 Almario Almanon, PG1 Pedro Poquiz Jr and PG1 Diego de Guzman

The DOJ probe was conducted in light of separate reports that Camata, drug convict Amin Buratong, and robbery gang leader Herbert Colangco had been allowed to go to private hospitals outside the NBP facility in May.

Buratong, who owned and operated a P900-million, 2,000-square-meter "shabu tiangge" in Pasig City, was reported to have been brought to the Medical City in Pasig City on May 13 supposedly due to a coronary artery disease and a liver ailment.

Colangco, meanwhile, was brought to the Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Alabang, Muntinlupa, on May 27. He is behind the robbery heists in Pampanga in 2003 and in Parañaque and Quezon City in 2005.

Camata, who is also the leader of the Sigue-Sigue Sputnik gang, was earlier rushed to the Metropolitan Hospital in Manila supposedly due to a lung ailment.

Reports said a “starlet and television dancers” had been seen entering Camata's hospital room for two nights. The DOJ said Camata's unauthorized hospitalization ran from May 28 to June 2, 2014.

On May 18, 2014, Camata reportedly approached Dr. Villanueva to complain about "several neck masses associated with body malaise and progressive weight loss."

The physician the following day prepared a medical abstract, recommending Camata to a doctor at the Metropolitan Medical Center. The abstract was later co-signed by Garcia.

According to the DOJ, NBP doctors, based on the BuCor operating manual, should have notified Justice Secretary Leila de Lima first or requested an authority for referral to an outside hospital. Besides, the DOJ said that based on the medical abstract, Camata's health complaints were not emergency in nature.

The DOJ said the two doctors "failed to dispense with the diligence required of them, not only as medical practitioners who answer to a different Code and possess their own standard of diligence, but more importantly as public servants."

As for Lansangan, the DOJ said he "failed to perform his functions as the superintendent of the NBP to diligently observe the conduct of the prison officers... and the prison guards of the said unit, and require faithful execution by them of their duties."

Lansangan had argued that he had prepared a memorandum informing de Lima about Camata's hospitalization but the memo "unfortunately got misplaced in his office and mixed along with other documents."

"It cannot be said that the misplacement of the memorandum was inevitable, for the same implies that, there was no way that could not have been stopped, even if unforeseen," said the DOJ.

As for Magan, the DOJ said he failed with his responsibility to "see the proper training of the prison guards designated to his unit, and their strict observance of their escorting duties."

The DOJ also noted how the jail guards and escorts failed to get the identities of Camata's visitors at the hospital, to inspect their belongings, and to record the visits in their mission logbooks. — LBG, GMA News