Beriberi probe uncovers more mess at IRC
Yesterday’s “Beriberi probe” in the Capitol uncovered more than what was expected by members of the Committee on Health.
With Capitol doctors in attendance and all-star cast of characters involved in the operations of the Iloilo Rehabilitation Center (IRC), health issues dominated the hearing alongside major side issues.
First District Board Member Mac Napulan led the committee hearing backed by Vice Governor Rolex Suplico, Board Member Cecilia Colada, Second District June Mondejar and representatives of other board members of the 9th Iloilo Sanggunian Panlalawigan (SP).
At the center of the legislative inquiry was the matter of inmates’ food rations at the IRC. Heard were testimonies and statements of the Capitol doctors and the food caterer, Hannah Marie Puda (not Anna Puda as earlier reported).
With over P14.6 million in total food budget allocation for this year, the committee heard for the first time the supposed “meal plan” in place and varying menu as catered.
Puda in a report submitted to the committee presented a well-balanced nutritious meal commensurate to the budget limitations.
For breakfast, Puda’s report stated a purported weeklong variation of rice with egg, rice with dried fish, rice with hotdog, rice with sautéed eggplant, rice with sardines with miswa noodle, rice with corned beef with diced potatoes and yes, rice with ham. For lunch, the supposed food ration include rice matched with monggo with pork, laswa with hibe, red beans, pinabket, ground pork with kalobay and pechay, chicken head and papaya and pancit. For dinner, bam-e, dinuguan, chicken, fish paksiw, pork paksiw, pork menudo and fried fish.
Problem is, as Napulan asserted, the sickened inmates, those undiagnosed and left untreated in detention said otherwise.
Everyday for the past many days, the committee was told, food served was not as pre-approved and paid for by the multi-million IRC food budget. Anything that is meat or resembles meat is reportedly alien here.
Added still was Napulan’s first-hand inspection results that yielded at least 40 other sick inmates with severe nutritional deficiency. From swollen stomachs, legs, faces to enlarged hearts, the IRC inmates’ health condition was dubbed by Napulan as “critical and alarming.”
“The IRC is a place for epidemics,” he quipped during the committee hearing pointing out previous outbreaks of skin diseases, water-borne diseases and other respiratory problems.
“What is clear here is that the inmates who are dependent on IRC catered food are suffering from nutritional deficiency. What is also clear is that this comes from catered food and not from unsanitary jail conditions, poor food preparations or environmental concerns. Further that is clear is that the new warden is not in command with the IRC management and operations particularly his assertion that the inmates are probably selling their food ration to fellow inmates. That is simply absurd. Also clear is how our Capitol doctor and that of the IRC is not fully aware of what’s going on inside,” Napulan said in a The News Today (TNT) interview.
Napulan also want a deeper look on the catering contract of Puda with some documents in the committee’s possession feared to be spurious.
The committee is likewise mulling over the possibility of revisiting the inmates in order to validate the claims of the caterer.