Duterte warns prosecuting hospitals declining COVID-19 patients

April 14, 2020

President Rodrigo Duterte has warned hospitals that would reject suspected patients of coronavirus disease, saying the government would go after them.

Duterte issued the warning after receiving reports that a patient died after six hospitals in Cabanatuan City did not accept him.

"That's wrong. So, if it's true, I will really ask the Justice department to prosecute you, because you know, that's wrong, especially the government hospital," he said in a taped televised public message on Monday night.

Duterte said his order, especially to the government hospitals, "(you) must accept...(if) you fail on that, I will relieve all of you in the hospital and you can consider yourself suspended because the written order will follow."

Meanwhile, Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases Spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the local government units should make sure there is no congestion of cadavers in various morgues.

"We have to honor the 12-hour rule for cremation," he said, stressing that funeral parlors need not wait for all necessary papers and who would shoulder expenses before cremation.

"You know, this is already something that we are imposing already. And don't worry, government will come in and step in here," he said.

Nograles said if the LGUs fail to act on funeral parlors which refuse to get the cadavers, the Department of Interior and Local Government would deal with them.

"It's the DILG who is on top of all of these," he said.

There were reports that cadavers have been piling up in some hospital morgues as many people died due to coronavirus disease. Celerina Monte/DMS