DOH staff file complaint vs. Herbosa, officials over alleged medicine, vaccine waste

A group of Health department officials on Tuesday filed graft, grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the service complaints against Health Secretary Ted Herbosa and 16 other DOH officials before the Office of the Ombudsman. 

The complaints stem from an alleged P68 million worth of reproductive health (RH) and mental health medicines that expired and P1.3 billion worth of vaccines that remain undelivered.  

The complainants, who only identified themselves as Concerned Department of Health (DOH) employees, said the RH and mental health medicines expired within December 2025 to March this year.

The undelivered vaccines, with expiry dates ranging from March to December this year, include the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis and the MMR vaccine against measles.

“The negligence is amplified by the fact that top-tier officials received formal, written warnings of the magnitude of the impending loss. [DOH] Undersecretary Randy Escolango and OIC-Director David Masiado were served an Executive Briefer on March 9, 2026 regarding the overstocking and impending expiry,” the complaint read.

“Despite this formal notice, no emergency distribution was authorized. Instead, the office prioritized a rushed Department Personnel Order (DPO) for a Disposal Committee to liquidate (destroy) the stock and hide the evidence from media scrutiny. The Respondents demonstrated bad faith by prioritizing reputational damage over the safety over the health of the public,” the complaint added.

Aside from Herbosa, the other named respondents in the complaint are:

• DOH Undersecretary Randy Escolango
• DOH Assistant Secretary Gloria Balboa
• David Masiado, OIC-Director, High Burden Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control Division
• Dr. Anna Marie Celina Garfin (Director IV)
• Dr. Adriano Suba-an, Director IV, Population Health and Non­ Communicable Diseases
• Dr. Cherylle Gavino, Director III, Mental Health Division
• Dr. Maria Joyce Ducusin, Division Chief, Children's Health and Development Division
• Dr. Hardy Dumawing, Program Manager, Family Planning
• Dr. Carmela Granada, Division Chief, Mental Health Division
• Dr. Jan Derek Junio, Program Manager, National HIV/AIDS and STI Prevention and Control Program
• Dr. Carmina Paz Vera, Program Manager, National Immunization Program
• Dr. Jessa Joy Malipot, Technical officer for Procurement Management within the Mental Health Division
• Mark Anthony Dizon, Technical officer for Procurement Management within the Mental Health Division
• Liezl Fernandez: Technical staff for Budget and Procurement for the Other Infectious Diseases Prevention, Control, and Elimination Division
• Mary Grace Bautista, Management and Administrative Support Unit and
• Jennifer Rabino, Management and Administrative Support Unit 

The complainants cited internal communications from Herbosa’s office that, they claim, revealed an explicit directive to rush the Department Personnel Order (DPO) for a Disposal Committee. 

“This rush was not for efficiency, but to destroy the physical evidence of the P68-million loss before it could be scrutinized, as evidenced by the statement, Pag ito nalaman ng media, patay na naman,” the complaint read.

(If this comes out in the media, we are all done for.)

“By choosing to expedite the destruction of medicine, the Respondents demonstrated a conscious indifference to the public's right to health. They coordinated to ensure the concealment of their inefficiency in managing health resources resulting to wastage of large magnitude, which meet the legal threshold of evident bad faith because they were not merely passive; they were actively deceptive,” the complaint added.

DOH responds

The Health department said that it will respond to the allegations at the proper time and venue. 

"Before the public now is the latest in a series of persistently anonymous complaints that have not reached the Department of Health (DOH). Out of respect for due process and the work of the Ombudsman, we await the service of official copies," DOH Undersecretary and Dr. Albert Domingo  told GMA News Online. — BM, GMA News