-
“These fixers would go to the district hospital here and approach members of the IP who need blood and assist them (IP) to reach our blood bank,” Mary Lou Geturbos-Torres, PNRC chapter administrator here.
“Then [the fixers] would ask P1,500 from them (IP) as payment for the blood processing fee for a bag of blood,” she continued.
Torres said that the IPs do not know that they are entitled to a 50 percent discount in the blood-processing fee.
“It was just recently that we discovered that fixers actually collect P1,500 from their victims (IPs),” she said. “What we thought was that they only ask from them (IPs) P750.”
She said that the PNRC blood bank would give discount once the beneficiary can present certification from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) that they are indigent, and which the fixers are able to produce.
The chapter administrator said most members of the IPs do not know where the PNRC blood bank is, “thus they put trust to the said fixers immediately since they need blood very badly”.
“It is possible that our tribal brothers are shy in transacting with us, so they respond gratefully to help offered by the fixers,” Torres said.
Torres said they have already identified the fixers and barred them from doing business in the PNRC blood bank. She said that the IPs who want to get blood must transact personally with their blood bank staff.