31 August 2005
EDITORIAL: Name the doctors!
THE Department of Health thru the Bureau of Food and Drugs may not realize it but it is actually doing a disservice to the public if it insists in withholding the identities of the doctors listed in that “blue book” confiscated from two women couriers of counterfeit drugs in Calasiao two weeks back.
Until now, the public – and even the media – is being left guessing on whether or not their own doctor is among those unscrupulous medical practitioners who are selling their soul to the counterfeiters for profit. The innocent ones among the physicians are also unfairly put under a cloud of doubt; we have heard as much in public comments in coffeeshops the past days since local tabloids reported the story absent the names of the doctors patronizing the illegal activity.
If these doctors are, as the BFAD and NBI authorities claim, suspects only, so be it. Let them be called suspects but their names must be out – in the name of public alert. By insisting that there is no evidence yet against them and that they are only being monitored, the NBI itself may be unwittingly abetting the crime it wants to prevent by not naming the “suspects.”
There are supposedly 10 of the doctor-clients of the counterfeiters in Pangasinan and two in Ilocos Sur. How many of their innocent fellow doctors’ reputation and credibility now hang in doubt, all because of the refusal of authorities to tag those involved in the shenanigan?
There is an even more sinister implication of the continued non-disclosure of the 10 doctors’ identities – that the agencies involved in the investigation, going by prevailing public notion on matters of this nature, could so easily engineer a whitewash one way or the other and the public will never know.
That, we say, is a more compelling reason than any for DOH and NBI to now spill the beans. Out with the names, gentlemen!
Until now, the public – and even the media – is being left guessing on whether or not their own doctor is among those unscrupulous medical practitioners who are selling their soul to the counterfeiters for profit. The innocent ones among the physicians are also unfairly put under a cloud of doubt; we have heard as much in public comments in coffeeshops the past days since local tabloids reported the story absent the names of the doctors patronizing the illegal activity.
If these doctors are, as the BFAD and NBI authorities claim, suspects only, so be it. Let them be called suspects but their names must be out – in the name of public alert. By insisting that there is no evidence yet against them and that they are only being monitored, the NBI itself may be unwittingly abetting the crime it wants to prevent by not naming the “suspects.”
There are supposedly 10 of the doctor-clients of the counterfeiters in Pangasinan and two in Ilocos Sur. How many of their innocent fellow doctors’ reputation and credibility now hang in doubt, all because of the refusal of authorities to tag those involved in the shenanigan?
There is an even more sinister implication of the continued non-disclosure of the 10 doctors’ identities – that the agencies involved in the investigation, going by prevailing public notion on matters of this nature, could so easily engineer a whitewash one way or the other and the public will never know.
That, we say, is a more compelling reason than any for DOH and NBI to now spill the beans. Out with the names, gentlemen!
