FIRING LINE: How many secret hospitals are there?

By Robert B. Roque, Jr.

During the raid on an illegal medical clinic, the police confiscated a wide range of medical paraphernalia designed to treat COVID-19 and other diseases.

With the ongoing operations against these medical facilities by law-enforcement agencies, it makes the ordinary Juan de la Cruz wonder how many of these secret hospitals can there be? Several have been raided and shuttered in Paranaque, Makati, and Clark and Angeles City, both in Pampanga.

The authorities recently swooped down on a clandestine hospital inside the Fontana Leisure Park at the Clark Freeport Zone in Mabalacat, Pampanga. They collared two Chinese nationals, whom they released on the same day without Filing any charges.

This made Mang Juan also question the lawmen’s leniency shown to the suspects.

Did they kowtow to pressure from a “godfather” coddling these suspects? Or were they blinded by the color of money? I hope neither was the reason.

It was as if placing these Chinese nationals on the Bureau of Immigration’s alert list, which would supposedly prevent them from leaving the country, good enough to satisfy the curiosity of Mang Juan, who can get arrested for a minor offense.

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The suspects were operating a hospital treating Chinese patients believed to be suffering from COVID-19. These patients went missing and could be possibly spreading the virus. Law enforcers need to locate and quarantine these patients.

Moreover, government agencies should work hand-in-hand to rid our country of illegal clinics. Foreigners — whether patients or doctors who have no license to practice medicine in the country — caught inside the raided facilities should be blacklisted and deported automatically.

This corner is appalled by how these foreigners flout our laws with daring impunity. Is it because they have the wrong notion that this administration, having regarded China as its “Best Friend”, is subservient to the Mainland?

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