23 - Bill arrives

Journey 21

On Tuesday 21st August - finally - now 11 days since Mayen was admitted to hospital I receive the first notification from the Medical Center Paranaque.

(read here for more on this topic)

As an attachment to the letter there was a photocopy of a hospital bill.
On thorough examination we noticed a few suspicious details.

* The figures for Professional Fees had been creatively altered, but added up to the same total as the original figures sent from the Tierra Maria office on Monday 13th August, as had the two small amounts of credit from the cash Mayen said she had paid. The sort of thing that is done to make round figures appear more arbitrary. There is no other possible explanation.
* There is no mention of the money ate Glo is alleged to have paid for laboratory and other fees - appearing as a "credit."
* There is no recorded source for the 10,000 deposit - nor a record of the further "advances" which Sir Francis alleges were requested in his letter to John Goodwin.
* The patient's ID number was different from the one Sir Francis had given me.
* The accounts manager had signed his name over the "Prepared by" field at the bottom of the bill, obscuring the fact that it said "null," indicating that only one person had been involved.

The accompanying text also confirms that my requests to Sir Francis had been passed on & complied with - I am supplied with the doctors details.

Now - the significance of this arriving are nothing to do with the details contained in it - for certain, this was produced by the Accounts manager at the hospital, and he knew what he was doing. It is the fact when it arrived - I was informed by email on Monday 13th August that they were having trouble "scanning the bill from the hospital" - by Tierra Maria Estates - so they allegedly had a bill of some sort in their possession at this time.

Nothing further was sent to me however, not until after I had started circulating emails, outlining my suspicions to various locations, including Tierra Maria Estates owner, Tony Montinola.
At this time I also revealed my blog to them, although it was still being kept private.

Mayen is about to tell me (next chapter) that she had allegedly already arranged, several days previously, to have the account payed by "selling the inherited property" - despite this, I am sent this JPG of the bill.
Why? If settling the account has already been arranged - the only reason must surely be to get me off their backs, by trying to prove their innocence.

This is from Medical Center Parañaque, Inc.. We have a patient in the name of Ms. Ma. Ana Samson Betita who was admitted last August 10, 2007, but still with us due to none payment of Hospital Bill and Professional Fees.
Her Attending doctors are as follows:
Dr. Reynaldo S. Dizon
email Address: ****@***.net
License no.: ******
Dr. Leonor Leonardo
email address: *******@*****.com.ph
Licence no: ******
Attached is the Statement of Account of the above patient.
The said statement of account is as of to date only. Daily room rate is P950.00.
Thank you.
From,
Mr. Jaime Landico
Accounting Manager
MEDICAL CENTER PARAÑAQUE, INC.
Dr. A. Santos Avenue, Sucat Road, Parañaque City
Philippines
825-6911 to 15 loc 197
Direct Line: 826-2121
email address: ******@******.com

We noticed that Dr Dizon's licence number is different from that quoted by Sir Francis and that the accounting manager has mis-spelt his own name.
Also, whether significant or not, the accounts manager does not signify that the surgeon was a woman by using the abbreviation, Dra. for the Spanish - Doctora, the feminine of Doctor.

I send a reply to the accounting manager.

To: Medical Center Paranaque.
22/08/07
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your two emails and attached photo-copies.
The current matter is still under investigation.
In the interim - would you please:
* Kindly suggest to us how you require these moneys to be paid.
* Please confirm to us that your signature is to be found on the photo-copy.
* Is your name Mr.Jamie Landico?
* Who is to be found on Direct Line 826 - 2121?
* Please could you supply us with the Direct Line telephone numbers for:
Dr. Virgilio Oblepias - Chairman of The Board of Directors.
Dr. Renato Bernabe - President of The Board of Directors.
Dr. Humberto Villareal - Hospital Director.
We have already contacted the two Doctors allegedly concerned.
We have only had a reply from one of them.
The answers to our questions were not comprehensive.
We stress the serious nature of the allegations being made about this event, implicating quite a few people.
We count on your integrity and honesty to supply us with the answers to our queries.
Yours sincerely.
Mr. T.E.Cumper
UK

He replies with -

Dear Sir,
answered to your query.
* Kindly suggest to us how you require these moneys to be paid.
- You can remit thru our depository bank under
Account : *****
Equitable PCI Bank
Dr. A. Santos or St. James Branch
* Please confirm to us that your signature is to be found on the photo-copy.
- Yes, that is my signature
* Is your name Mr.Jamie Landico?
- My name is Mr. Jaime M. Landicho
* Who is to be found on Direct Line 826 - 2121?
- Either me or Ms. Josephine Jimenez, Billing Supervisor
*Please could you supply us with the Direct Line telephone numbers for:
Dr. Virgilio Oblepias - Chairman of The Board of Directors.
Dr. Renato Bernabe - President of The Board of Directors.
Dr. Humberto Villareal - Hospital Director.
- You can reach the officers mentioned at 825-6911 and ask for their extension.
However, they are busy persons to look for your concern. Furthermore, please be informed that the documents sent you are all authenticated. A certain Mr. Carlos Tampengko of the Bristish Embassy has also called us and inquire the hospital bill of Ma. Ana Samson Betita.
Respectfully yours,
Mr. Jaime M. Landicho
Accounting Manager
MEDICAL CENTER PARAÑAQUE, INC.

Notice that he states that the British Embassy in Manila had been in touch with the hospital - it is odd to me that the accounts office seems to be dealing with all enquiries - it seems to be the hub of the hospital - at the end of the only email address - and where my emails had been disappearing without trace.
Notice also that he says that the enquiry from the Embassy was about the bill - although their reply to me later on tries to paint in a few details to add realism - and excusing the phone system - bear in mind that all this information has come from the same source - ie. the accounts department at the hospital. Despite the apparent weight of authority that originating from the British Embassy was supposed to lend this reply - it only adds further suspicion.
Since I sent out my circular dossier email (as I like to call it) with attachments on Wednesday 22nd August 4.02 am the British Embassy are now showing willing - rather too willing in my opinion.
Interesting also that Sir Francis had suggested to me that I contact the Embassy for help - just one hour after my first email to the Embassy.

Here are the rapid fire communications between me and the British Embassy from the same day Wednesday 22nd August. This was a "live" exchange, proving that someone was actively involved on this case and considering the general apathy in replying to my emails, a rare occurrance indeed.

06:27
Mr. Cumper,
Thank you for your lengthy email with attachments. Let me state first that the assistance you asked is purely personal and is not something we normally get involved with because the subject of your enquiry is a foreign national.
Having said that however, I made few enquiries and found out the following:
1) That Betita still remains at private Room 137 of Medical Centre Parañaque awaiting your remittance to pay her hospital bills. She has been given discharge order but unable to leave the hospital without payment.
2) Her total bill as of today is Php 83,262.69. Her daily room and board in a private room is Php 950.
This amount will add to the total as the day progresses. The room does not have a telephone but if you wish to speak to Betita, you can call the hospital switchboard on 0632 825 6911 to 15 and ask the operator to connect you to Nurse Station 3. Betita is four rooms away from the station. Also to warn you that the telephone system is not efficient - reception is noisy and connection to local number takes sometime and can be disconnected from time to time.
3) Payments may be deposited directly to Medical Center Parañaque at Equitable PCI Bank, Dr. A. Santos Avenue Branch under A/C number ******. I checked this account number with the bank manager who confirmed the account number belongs to the hospital.
Hope the above information helps.

Dear Sir, thank you very much for making those enquiries on my behalf.
May I please enquire as from who the information you have aquired originated?
As this is absolutely critical to my enquiries.
Awaiting, humbly, your urgent response.
Yours sincerely,
Mr Timothy Ellis Cumper

06:42
This was your original email. [They had pasted a copy of my dossier email below.]

Dear Sir,
I am sorry, my question referred to who at the hospital did you speak to with your kind enquiry on my behalf?
Mr Timothy E Cumper

06:45
Did you mean the source of information?
Hospital: Mr. Landicho - Accounts Manager
Bank: Mr. Louie Domingo

06:46
The original email request came from you. Did it not? I deleted your original long email.

06:48
Billing Supervisor Josephine Jimenez and Jaime Landicho, Jimenez's Accounting manager.

[A discrepancy here between Mayen's word-of-mouth account given to Noemi Dado during her video interview - Mayen states that the British Embassy spoke to her, personally.]

Now - considering that the reply bears all the authority of the British Embassy, there are no caveats at all about caution - unusual - as my email to them outlined my suspicions.
There is no mention that the information that they were given from the accounts department is actually true - no investigation - just word of mouth.
In fact they are simply echoing information that I already knew - to what purpose?
Considering that they knew all about my concerns - the tone of their reply seems extremely biased - leaning towards the side of the "Foreign Nationals" rather than the British subject who contacted them initially - trying to excuse and defuse my suspicions about the telephone system.
Surely they are aware, just as everybody else is, that scamming does go on over there - Hospital bills being one of the preferred means?

My dossier email was also sent to a close business associate of Sir Francis - she had given me her card when I met her at the Fiesta in Hounslow.
I figured that Sir Francis would get to hear of what I'd done as all the email addresses that I'd sent it to were CC'd. The dossier email to the Embassy was sent separately however and was not included in these CC's.
The close business associate corresponded with me, briefly, about the whole affair - I expect Sir Francis was using her to spy on my emotional state - which I honestly revealed in my last email to her - but then heard no more from her.

Wednesday 22nd August - 11:49 BST
God bless you ****** even the British Embassy have been in touch with the hospital - spoken to the accounts dept - the bank manager - confirming it all.
I have tried to be impartial about this all -
but had I been entirely on my own and asked myself about these points . . .
* My feelings for Mayen in no way imply that it is reciprocal.
* Only what I believe - remember on one level - from my visit.
* I am on my own as to proving whether or not I am a moral coward.
* Take responsibility.
* Am I escaping into purely specious territory when I ask myself "Which has a higher ethical value - honouring the love that only I may be feeling - or - searching for the truth?"
* But I find myself wanting to believe that there is a deceit going on - because it now seems to me to be the easy way out - and that is biasing my efforts, my searching - it seems to be pushing me into a corner, coupled with the fact that I have absolutely no idea how Mayen feels for me - purely selfish I know - why not just run away and hide, if the relationship is destroyed anyway?
* Maybe that's what it has been all along - pure selfishness under the disguise of love - in which case - this is a very just outcome.
* The only answer I can find is that I am a moral coward - the proof of that is only in the choices I have made and will make.
* Surely the facts of this episode read either way - which ever perspective one looks at it from? Suspicion - or - truth.
* Just like I did with Mayen from the beginning - we fill in all the missing pieces ourselves - supposition.
* Or have we further to go - more "facts" to uncover?
* Like has been pointed out to me by Sir F "We made our own bed . . ." I should really come to a decision.
* If the British Embassy Manila can't convince me of the truth - who on earth can?
* I still believe that God is love & love is God - somehow my love is involved in this - that is my only base at the moment - my faith in that.
* What is Sir Francis's base at the moment? - he's obviously been stirring up a response - covering his base.
* Does my base need covering?
* As long as I remain impartial - not misguided by my cowardice - I will steer in the correct direction. I need have no fear. God is love.
* But I cannot hide behind spiritual love and ignore the love of a human in distress - Mayen - no matter what she may or may not have done - this is still my responsibility.
* But if I speak to her - I know that it will wrench my heart in only one direction.
. . . I don't know where I'd be now.
Thank you
Tim

In response to my "dossier email" sent to her previously, I received a reply - allegedly from her.

Hi tim:

This is sad. Please let me know if you are still visisting Manila so I can connect you to the right persons. ty

***

This was from the IP address which I have since tracked to be where Sir Francis has opened recent emails sent to him.

Here is a schedule of all emails sent and received between myself, the British Embassy, Sir Francis & his close business associate.

*1st email to Embassy - outlining my suspicions (but not sent to Carlos Tampinco's seperate email address.)
Sat. 18 August 2007 - 06:28:11 BST

* email from Sir Francis - Sat. 18 Aug 2007 07:22:35 BST (1 hour later.)
"Why don't you instead request the British Embassy to help you."

* 1st reply from Carlos Tampinco - (drew a blank)
Mon. 20 Aug 2007 04:03:05 BST

* Ist reply after Dossier letter was sent to her - from close business associate - "Hi tim: This is sad. Please let me know if you are still visisting Manila so I can connect you to the right persons."
Tue. 21 Aug 2007 23:09:05 BST (from Sir Francis's IP address.)



* Sent dossier letter Wed. 22 Aug 2007 03:27:45 BST
To the owner of Tierra Maria Estates & CC'd to many other government agencies in the Philippines - (many of the others failed, treated as spam.)

* Sent dossier letter Wed. 22 Aug 2007 04:02:38 BST
To Carlos Tampinco - no CC's.


*2nd reply from Carlos Tampinco - (All the details)
Wed. 22 Aug 2007 06:27:25 BST

* Email sent Wed 22 Aug 2007 06:52:03 BST
To close business associate.
"Hi ****** thank you for your reply - I am desperate - I don't know who to trust.
I have sent out so many emails to all sorts of organisations.
I'm sorry - but the implications contained in the documents I sent you - might be upsetting - I can hardly believe this myself - having met most of the people concerned.
I certainly won't be returning to the Philippines until this situation is resolved - and my relationship with Mayen is surely doomed by all of this.
The circumstances are so suspicious to me.
I hope that you are well - and business is good.
Yours sincerely "

* 2nd reply from close business associate - "I will pray for you."
Wed. 22 Aug 2007 08:38:15 BST
(Different IP address from previous reply.)

* Sent long email to business associate - Wed. 22 August - 10:49 BST

"God bless you ****** even the British Embassy have been in touch with the hospital . . ."

* No further replies received.

Here is a copy of one email sent to my MP which will explain my thoughts on this aspect of the situation - the matter had been passed over to the Foreign Office for investigation.

Friday, 21 December, 2007

Dear ****,

Firstly may I thank you for your help in presenting my issue of concern to the relevent authorities and for your recent letter which enclosed a copy of their response.

Please forward the content of this email to **** at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

I will argue the point that I was being steered to pay the hospital costs - for the email I received from the British Embassy in Manila was perceived as an endorsement of the information it contained.

I will argue the point that I did not request that the Embassy obtain information from the local authorities - I requested validation that the information I had already received was beyond suspicion.

The critical point, central to my concern is not the specific situation that I became involved with - and has not been suitably addressed.

It is to do with implementing a policy, within the protocol of the British Embassy, that would prevent a recurrence.

The suspicions contained in my first & second emails to the Embassy were ignored by Mr Carlos Tampinco.

By communicating to me using the authority of the British Embassy - and particularly with the omission of any caveat advising caution or further vigilance - the inference was that the information contained in his response to my second email was legitimate - and had been thoroughly checked and verified as true.

However, the information that I received from him in this case was no more than the suspect information I had already obtained - and had indeed been supplied by one of the very same sources.

Furthermore - the specific information regarding the telephone system at the hospital appeared to be providing an explanation for my suspicions - information which, in the absence of a thorough investigation, must have been conveyed by the very same suspect source at the hospital itself.

My concern was not to simply obtain echoes of what I already knew - but was specifically an endeavour to try to illuminate the truth.

The predominant content of my emails to Mr Tampinco, together with the attachments, was of my suspicion- and evidential support of that suspicion - all be it arbitrary and incomplete at that time - due to my distress.

The Embassy in the Philippines surely had "a duty of care" in this situation - either to thoroughly investigate - and report to me the conclusion of that investigation - or to advise that caution and due vigilance be taken - in the light of the evidence for my suspicion and the certain knowledge of the proliferation of this sort of activity in that country. Or to remain consistent with the policy of non-involvement shown in its reply to my first email.

I am privy to the background of this event - I have kept detailed records - there are so many discrepancies, lies, cover-ups - it is continuing to this day - with efforts to manipulate me into removing my incriminating writings from the Internet.

I have conclusive proof of lying - and a recording from web cam, of the revelation of a fake scar - all done in efforts to both extort more money from me -and force me to retract my allegations.

All of the above leads me to one firm and singular conclusion - that from beginning to end - this whole business has been faked - and yet consistently, the deceit has been corroborated by people in positions of authority.

We do not know precisely how exceptional was Mr Tampinco's second response to my circumstances - he certainly did not address my key concern, but by his own admission - the British Embassy do not normally involve themselves in the business of foreign nationals.

However - it seems to me that the interest of the foreign nationals concerned in this instance, have been given priority of support.

The crux of the matter is this - if, as I would expect, the Embassy desires to be - and appear to be - impartial, then the implied authority perceived within its message to me should have been counterbalanced with a caveat advising precaution - particularly in the light of my suspicions, which were made perfectly clear.

If this impartiality is absent - the strong implication is that the response has been influenced in some way.

Co-incidentaly, I received an email from one of the main suspects - steering me towards making an appeal to the British Emabassy in Manila for help - an hour after sending my first email to the Embassy.

To help prevent any further occurrence - the apparent endorsement by the Embassy of entirely unverified facts - from potentially assisting criminals in achieving their goals - I would like to see evidence of an addition to, or reinforcement of, the Embassy protocol in dealing with similar situations - a caveat advising caution and due vigilance - when disseminating unverified information of this nature.

Unfortunately - as the recent press bears witness, with tragedies occurring in the Philippines - this advice is particularly pertinent for visitors to those shores - becoming increasingly notorious for their corruption and lawlessness.

I cannot expect the British Government to assist me in what is a purely personal matter - discovering and revealing more of the truth of the episode that I was particularly involved in.

However - in the matter of ensuring that protocols within the British Embassy are suitably comprehensive and robustly adhered to, on occasions that demand strict ethics and impartiality - I think you will agree with my insistence that these protective measures be securely in place.

May I take this opportunity to thank you again - and to wish you and all of your staff a very happy Christmas and successful new year.

Yours sincerely,

Timothy E Cumper

Maidenhead

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