A proposed ordinance banning the act of sealing a child’s mouth with tape was passed on first reading by the Cebu Provincial Board yesterday.
The move was prompted by the controversy in the Cebu Puericulture Center and Maternity House where a newborn boy’s upper lip was taped, triggering an inter-agency investigation into the practice of hospital nurses using adhesive tape to hold in place a pacifier.
“This august body condemns the practice of taping children’s mouths especially that of an infant,” said the draft ordinance authored by PB Member Arleigh Sitoy.
It cited the hospital case “where a medical staff taped the baby’s mouth to stop the baby from crying, deliberately placing the child’s life at risk.”
The penalty sought is a P5,000 fine and six-month imprisonment for a person who seals the mouth of a child for any reason. A person “guilty of coverup” of the offense shall suffer three months imprisonment and a P3,000 fine.
The draft ordinance says the Province of Cebu recognizes the rights of a child.
ONE MONTH
It’s been a month since baby Johannes at six days old was found sleeping in his crib in the hospital nursery with his mouth plastered with medical tape.
At around 8 p.m of May 9, his mother Jasmine Badocdoc went to the nursery to breastfeed when she discovered her infant’s taped face and took photos.
Ryan Noval, the father, uploaded four photos in his public Facebook account which soon went viral.
That evening their lives turned into a quest for justice.
Amid initial denials of the hospital that their nursery staff were responsible, parents of other babies have surfaced with their accounts and some photos of how their infants’ faces had been taped the same way.
Findings of an inter-agency probe headed by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) are being written up and due for release in late June or July
“It’s really frustrating since we still need to live our daily lives. There hasn’t been any normalcy but we leave it to our lawyer to do her task,” Noval told Cebu Daily News.
The parents vowed to sue the hospital and expect to file a complaint in court soon.
Since the controversy erupted, the couple has been losing sleep and struggling with the effects of wide publicity on their private lives.
Sometimes when they walk along the street, Badocdoc says she feels uneasy when people stare.
“Things are different back home in the United States and so you can probably guess what my family’s frustrations are,” said Noval, a Fil-American who was raised in Mambaling, Cebu City until his family left for California in 1987 when he was a teenager.
Noval, a US citizen, opened a Facebook account “Breaking the silence” to record his son’s case and hopefully, other cases of malpractice and maltreatment of newborns around the world.
At home in Cebu City, the couple still find joy with their son and eldest, 2-year-old daughter Illiana Gabrielle.
“They are my stress reliever and they made me happy,” Noval said.
He shared how Gabrielle was singing “Frozen” to her baby brother
“At least happy siya and walay kalibutan,” said Noval with a smiley on a Facebook chat. (At least she’s happy and has no idea what’s going on.)
“Sige siya ug “mwaaah 4x” (kiss) sa face ni Yo. Just like the pictures that I posted on Facebook,” Noval added. (She keeps kissing his face.)
At one month and seven days old, Yohannes is in good health.
Edith Santos, president of the Philippine Nurses of Association (PNA) Cebu Chapter, said so far she hasn’t heard any news of Cebuano nurses applying for jobs abroad who are affected by the hospital controversy.
She said she spoke last week with Arianne Mae Pacula and Kamille Neri, the nurses investigated in the face-taping incident.
Both have been on indefinite leave since the controversy broke out.
“We met them somewhere else and they were okay the time we met them,” Santos added.
Lawyer Cornelio Mercado, spokesman of the hospital, said he would just wait for the official results of the inter-agency fact-finding panel.
Their resolution will be released in 15 working days starting yesterday.
Asked if any changes in the hospital have been made, Meracdo said “only the board of trustees can decide that.”
“It is also their decision to make if they would like to install Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) in the nursery,” he said.
The inter-agency panel is composed of the Department of Health (DOH-7) , Commission on Human Rights (CHR-7), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-7), National Telecommunication (NTC), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI-7), Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS), Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) and the Women and Children Protection of Cebu City Police Office (CCPO. / With intern Le-an Lai Lacaba
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