THE Second Division of the Supreme Court recently dismissed outright the complaint for disbarment (docketed as A.C. No. 10846) filed by the Eye Center Conglomerate, Inc., represented by Dr. Raymond Evangelista, against Alexander A. Padilla, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).
In a Resolution dated October 5, 2015, the SC Second Division resolved to dismiss the complaint for “violation of the Lawyer’s Oath and Canons of the Code of Professional Responsibility” against Padilla “there being no prima facie case against respondent.” The dismissal of the case by the Second Division was immediate and without the need of the respondent’s comment.
The case stemmed from a press conference conducted in May 2015 where PhilHealth announced to the media the issuance of the STOP-Claims (Suspension of Transaction of Payments of Claims) Order on claims filed by two (2) eye centers due to an “abnormal jump” in their reimbursements in benefit payments on cataract operations spanning several years.
Meanwhile, PhilHealth Medical Specialist III Dr. Kim P. Gariando filed a perjury complaint against Dr. Raymond Evangelista, corporate director of the Eye Center Conglomerate, Inc., in connection with the latter’s filing of a verified libel com plaint against the former before the Office of the City Prosecutor of Quezon City and docketed as I.S. No. XV-03-INV-15G08773, as a result of Dr. Gariando’s statements aired in GMA 7’s news program “Saksi” on the audit findings report on eye centers that his team submitted. In his Complaint-Affidavit for Perjury, Dr. Gariando alleges that “in the case of respondent Evangelista’s Complaint-Affidavit for Libel filed against me, paragraph 10 thereof which accuses me of categorically stating QCEC as one of the two eye centers performing ‘hakot’ system, is a willful and deliberate assertion of falsehood as I did not mention respondent, QCEC or any eye center in the Lei Alviz interview shown in Saksi.”
Perjury is committed either by “falsely testifying under oath or by making false affidavit.”(END)
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