By Emme Rose Santiagudo
Four hospital workers of Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in Mandurriao, Iloilo City who “insensitively” asked for vehicular accidents out of boredom may face administrative sanctions for alleged misconduct and violation of hospital rules.
Antonio Tijedo Jr., a job hire and administrative staff of WVMC, uploaded photos of him and three other medical personnel in WVMC on Monday afternoon carrying the caption, “Mass VA please na bored na kami di. Hahaha. Mass VA para sa tanan nga hospital.”
VA is the abbreviation for vehicular accident which is usually used in medical parlance and even in police reports.
While boredom may have trigged the four hospital personnel to jokingly ask for vehicular accidents to happen so that they will have something to do, netizens were not happy with it.
The post, which has since been deleted by the owner, received backlash from netizens for the inappropriate and insensitive remarks.
One Facebook user slammed the four health workers for making tactless and irresponsible actions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We salute you as frontliners but please be responsible enough with your words especially when they are being posted here in social media. The Ilonggo community has been winning in the battle against Covid-19 then don’t put it to waste or mess with the efforts by making such tactless action,” Denard Samson Cortel-Banagodos Lastiere Tuyo said in the comment section.
Another netizen, Alna Rose Paller, who is also a medical worker, said the insensitive post was not a laughing matter. Paller emphasized that frontliners should be responsible with their actions.
“We medical workers are already degraded and discriminated by other people and instead of helping and lifting up our profession, there you are posting that kind of personal joke. What kind of mindset do you have?” she said.
Tejido apologized on his Facebook wall.
“I sincerely apologize to all those whom I have unintentionally offended sa mga posts ko. I realized it was so insensitive of me, thus, I took it down. It was meant to be a personal joke. A joke which I also came to realize to be a very bad one. I have no bad intentions in posting all those since as what I’ve already said, it was supposed to be a joke,” he said.
“I do not wish harm to anyone. I am deeply and sincerely sorry to all. Rest assured that it will not happen again. I will be more cautious and sensitive in all my future posts. I thank you for calling my attention regarding this matter. I admit my mistakes and again, I am sorry.”
According to Atty. Jinky Cope, spokesperson and data protection officer of WVMC, except for Tejido, all the three other hospital workers are licensed radiologic technologist.
Three of them, including Tijedo, are job hires while one worker is a regular employee.
Cope said the four personnel were reprimanded and subjected to disciplinary actions. She said that the four were sorry and admitted to their mistakes.
“We cannot condone such acts. That is so wrong. It is very inappropriate and untimely as we are still battling for COVID-19 and many are dying. The picture and the statement are both wrong so we will discipline them,” Cope told Daily Guardian on Tuesday.
Based on her initial assessment, Cope said the four health workers may have violated hospital rules and regulations prescribed by the Department of Health (DOH). The regular employee may face administrative sanctions for gross misconduct or conduct prejudicial to public service.
“The thing can speak for itself. It is very obvious that they did it during office hours. The mere fact nga nag-violate sila sang rule then that can also be a ground for a pre-termination sang ila job hire contract,” she said.
Job hires are not governed by civil service law but their contract is subject to renewal based on their performance.
Hence, Cope said their contract may be pre-terminated for breach of contract such as failure to render their undertaking to comply with hospital rules.
Meanwhile, she said that the permanent employee shall be subjected to disciplinary administrative procedure covered by the civil service law and the Magna Carta for Public Health Workers.
“In the observance of due process, they are advised in writing to file their respective explanation. In the meantime, all of them are advised not to report to work until they submit their written explanation,” she said.
