The Civil Service Commission has granted the appeal of a doctor for her to remain in her present position due to various reasons, and that the memorandum issued by her immediate head reassigning her to another hospital as officer-in-charge, was also reversed in a promulgation dated July 10, 2015.
The provincial government had received on July 27 a decision from the CSC reversing the Governor’s order, but remedies are also provided under existing laws, one of which is to file for a motion for reconsideration or to bring the matter to appropriate bodies like the Court of Appeals.
Earlier on Jan. 12, Dr. Norma Nemenzo, medical officer assigned at the Canlaon City District Hospital in Negros Oriental, received a memorandum from the Provincial Health Officer-designate Dr Henrissa Calumpang re-assigning her at the Mabinay Medicare Community Hospital due to the absence of a doctor in that hospital, with the retirement of Dr Rufo Tumapa.
Two days later, Dr. Nemenzo filed a notice of appeal before the CSC to hold her reassignment in abeyance citing provisions of the Magna Carta for public health workers, stating among others that her reassignment to the Mabinay Medicare Community Hospital as OIC would cause extreme physical difficulties and would result in financial dislocation on her part, and that she has an ailment on her right knee as gleaned from the results of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging report.
She also claimed that the travel time from her place in Canlaon City to Mabinay is very taxing for a 63-year-old doctor.
This was given weight by the Commission in the CSC case vs. Pacheco.
However, Assistant Provincial Administrator Atty. Florian Joseph Pinili has vehemently denied insinuations that her reassignment was politically-motivated as claimed by critics of the present administration.
Pinili stressed all the legal requirements of RA 7305 otherwise known as the Magna Carta for Public Health Workers have been complied with, that she be informed of the reasons for her reassignment, that the order shall not be made three months before any local or national elections, and that the necessary expenses of the reassignment shall be paid by the government, including her right to collect the RATA equivalent to that of the chief of hospital.
All these requirements were complied, according to Pinili, in further stressing the law does not prohibit transfer, provided the requirements are complied with.
Pinili lamented that blowing the issue out of proportion was due to political reasons.
Meanwhile, the provincial government is verifying reports that Dr. Nemenzo has not been reporting for duty at the Canlaon District Hospital, and that the hospital’s timekeeper was directed to provide the necessary records.
One day after Nemenzo had received the memorandum order from Dr. Calumpang, she had filed for a leave of absence for five days in January this year, which was not acted upon by the provincial Capitol due to the wrong date of application written as “2014”.
According to the Assistant Provincial Administrator, Dr. Nemenzo’s absence on those dates can be considered as absence without leave and charged against her unpaid salaries. (PNA/JG)
