An HIV patient from Makati City is asking the Supreme Court (SC) to review the dismissal of a six-year-old “dental discrimination” case filed against two dentists in 2017 and to revive the lawsuit.
The male patient of Barangay Bangkal through the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) filed a 45-page petition for review on certiorari under Rule 45 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedures, assailing a decision of the Court of Appeals promulgated on June 28, 2022 and its subsequent resolution dated Feb. 9, 2023 denying the Office of the Solicitor General’s motion for reconsideration.
“I conclude that we should and may use state power to reduce discrimination by dentists against people with HIV. Discrimination can reasonably be seen as an evil, the hurtful exercise of arbitrary market power by misguided individuals against an emotionally and physically vulnerable group of people…,” the petition read.
“This is the first HIV/AIDS violation case under Republic Act 8504. PAO and the Office of the Solicitor General have joined together in this ‘novice’ case,” PAO chief Persida Acosta told the Manila Standard.
The OSG representing the HIV patient also filed a 45-page petition for review on certiorari with the High Court, questioning the acquittal of Dr. Sarah Jane Mugar and Dr. Mylene Igrubay at the Taguig City Metropolitan Trial Court and the denial of the petitioner’s motion for reconsideration at the appellate court.
CA could have committed grave abuse of discretion and misapprehended the facts when it held that the prosecution failed to prove respondents’ guilt beyond reasonable, OSG stated.
With help from PAO, the petitioner wants the so-called dental discrimination case be remanded to to trial court, and that the CA decision and resolution be reversed and set aside as well as the Taguig City court’s decision.
On Feb. 14, 2017, the HIV patient, who requested not to be identified, suffered from severe pain on his left molar tooth, prompting him to treatment at the Enhance Dental Clinic two days later.
Mugar advised the patient to secure first a clearance from his physician, Dr. LalaIn Arcangel, at the San Lazaro Hospital.
When he came back to the clinic, Mugar on the instruction of Igrubay refused to accommodate him for lack of UV type of desterilization equipment for surgery.