The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested seven suspects who allegedly sold medicines for kidney illness donated to poor communities, the NBI Special Task Force (NBI-STF) said.
Authorities caught the suspects in a buy-bust operation on December 7. The suspects sold the donated medicines under the Medical Assistance for Indigent Patients (MAIP) program to undercover agents.
The MAIP program is under the Department of Health (DOH) in partnership with the government-owned National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI) as one of the implementing agencies.
According to the NBI officer-in-charge Eric Distor, the suspects were identified as Aliza Macalambs, Jen Tubongbanua, Clarita Selga, Maria Fe Nisnisan, Emilda Besmonte, Norhata Batua, and Virginia dela Cruz.
Distor said the operation was launched following reports of NKTI on unauthorized selling of MAIP medicines.
Agents then investigated, surveyed, and launched a test-buy operation.
The undercover agents bought Epoetin Alfa (Pronivel) and Renvela from the suspects.
NBI then planned a buy-bust operation, asking Macalambos again to get medicines for dialysis patients.
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NBI arrests 7 suspects selling donated medicines
“On December 7, 2020, NBI-STF proceeded to the agreed meeting place and met by Subject Macalambos and Subject Tubongbanua and was later accompanied by Subjects Selga, Quimno, Besmonte, Batua, and Dela Cruz,” it said.
“During the transaction, the operatives noticed that the subjects are sharing their stocks in order to meet the order of their customers,” it noted.
After the buy-bust operation, NKTI confirmed that some of the medicines sold to the NBI agents were included in the hospital’s inventory and were distributed through the MAIP program.
The arrested suspects would face charges for alleged violation of the Food and Drug Administration Act of 2009.
In March, the National Bureau of Investigation also arrested a medical doctor for selling overpriced donated thermal scanners in Quezon City.
Special Action Unit caught the suspect Dr. Cedric John Sarmiento De Castro, in its anti-profiteering operations. The doctor was also the alleged president of Lions Club in New Manila, Quezon City.
De Castro allegedly sells 150 thermal scanners for P9,500 each, or a total of P1.2 million.