Capitol doc shrugs off threat of guv's aide
For filing a "sick leave" and showing up in a medical-dental mission thereafter, a top Capitol physician has now been threatened with an administrative charge of dishonesty.
As such, a 72-hour deadline was given to submit a written explanation or else face disciplinary action.
Subject of the order was Dr. George Acepcion, former hospital chief in Cabatuan yet now detailed at the Provincial Capitol Clinic. Deadline or not, Dr. Acepcion told The News Today (TNT) he will not heed the 72-hour reply period. Threat notwithstanding, he sees no reason to honor the "letter-sender," – Manuel Mejorada – saying he knows for a fact that the position as claimed here has been declared vacant by the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
"Yes I showed up in the medical-dental mission in Calinog and yes I was officially on leave then. But I came because it was through me that the request for medical doctors and dentists was made. I was not even feeling well then but I wanted to make sure everything was okay," Dr. Acepcion told TNT. "But see, I do not know him (referring to Mejorada) as the provincial administrator."
The letter cum warning was received by Dr. Acepcion yesterday afternoon.
"In your application for leave of absence (CSC Form No. 6) dated March 5, 2008, you requested for a sick leave on March 3 and 4, 2008 and cited "illness" as the reason. However it appears that you were not sick as you claimed on those dates. There are a number of persons, including Governor Niel D. Tupas Sr. who saw you during the Medical-Dental mission conducted in Calinog, Iloilo March 3," Mejorada's letter as obtained by TNT went. "This act is ground to hold you administratively liable for dishonesty."
Dr. Acepcion could only smile while reading the letter in its entirety.
"Being an officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines I decided, even if I was sick, to be there," Acepcion said adding that the medical-dental mission was organized by the Philippine National Police and the AFP.
"I am not threatened by this. I will not reply at all," Dr. Acepcion ended.