MANILA, Philippines—The National Bureau of Investigation has filed charges of illegal practice of medicine against Antonia Carandang-Park, owner of Green and Young Health and Wellness Center, who is neither licensed to practice medicine nor is on the roster of physicians of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).
NBI Director Virgilio Mendez said the investigation into the activities of Park, who is offering stem cell therapy in the Tagaytay-based center, started last year after Dr. Eunice Salazar-Abad accused Park of misrepresenting herself as a licensed doctor.
Abad was a former employee of Park’s wellness center.
Mendez said the case was filed the other day at the Tagaytay City prosecutor’s office.
Agent Aristotle Adolfo of the NBI-Anti-Organized Crime Division said Park introduced herself as an oncologist to patients who visited her clinic in San Jose, Tagaytay City, in July 2012, including former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The NBI said Park also used the medical license of Abad, who discovered the anomaly while under the employ of the accused.
In her statement to the NBI, Abad said she became suspicious of Park when she “noticed some irregularities and unorthodox methods when treating her patients.”
Her suspicion, the NBI said, prompted her to make verifications with the PRC.
Adolfo also said that a relative of a patient of the center, Roger Bandola, who died after being treated by Park, also filed a complaint before the NBI and provided investigators with the paper trail.
Park, in her counter-affidavit, admitted she is not a licensed physician and denied “that her wellness center is engaged in the practice of medicine.” Nancy C. Carvajal