VMMC: No disruption of medical services amid confinement of Sara Duterte's aides

The Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) on Wednesday committed that the delivery of healthcare services to all their patients would continue amid the confinement of two officials from the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

This, as OVP chief of staff Zuleika Lopez and OVP Special Disbursement Officer Gina Acosta were brought to the hospital in Quezon City on Saturday and Monday, respectively, after falling ill.

“In terms of operations and services, patuloy siya. Ine-ensure ng lahat ng staff na hindi nakaka-affect kung ano man ang nangyayari ngayon, doon sa delivery of services to our patients and their families, and clients,” VMMC spokesperson Dr. Joan Perez-Rifareal said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

(Our operations and services continue. All staff ensure that whatever is happening now does not affect the delivery of services to our patients and their families, and clients.)

Rifareal explained that VMMC, which is under the Department of National Defense (DND), primarily caters to war veterans and retirees, but the hospital is also open to everyone who needs immediate medical attention.

Lopez, a longtime aide of Vice President Sara Duterte, was transferred to the VMMC after she got emotional following the House of Representatives’ order to transfer her to the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW).

She was placed in the House detention facility after she was cited in contempt last Wednesday for her supposed “undue interference” in a House panel’s investigation into the budget use of Duterte's offices.

Meanwhile, Acosta was rushed to the same hospital amid questions on her knowledge on signatories on receipts used to justify the disbursement of P125 million confidential funds of the OVP in 2022.

She was seen being wheeled out of the Batasang Pambansa at 6:13 p.m. amid the ongoing House good government and public accountability panel inquiry on budget use of the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd) during Duterte’s tenure as Education chief. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News