Imagine walking into a hospital as a most-wanted fugitive and emerging with a new face, a new name, and a clean slate. It sounds like the plot of a spy thriller, but this is the reality in the clandestine underworld of plastic surgery in the Philippines.
According to a recent report by BBC.com, illegal hospitals in the Philippines are offering plastic surgery services to fugitives and workers from scam centers, helping them evade arrest.
These secretive facilities provide a range of procedures designed to alter a person’s appearance drastically, allowing them to start a new life free from their criminal past.
Caught Red-handed
In May, authorities raided an illegal hospital in Pasay City, a southern suburb of Manila, seizing hair transplant tools, dental implants, and skin whitening IV drips.
A spokesman for the Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission (PAOCC), Winston Casio says:
“You can create an entirely new person out of those,”
This facility, about 400 square meters in size, was equipped with various medical technologies, including a hemodialysis machine, indicating a range of medical treatments beyond plastic surgery.
Authorities have identified two more illegal hospitals, believed to be four times larger than the one in Pasay, which could be shut down in the coming weeks. These clandestine operations allegedly cater to clients from online casinos, known as Philippine Online Gaming Operations (POGOs), which are frequently used as fronts for criminal activities such as telephone scams and human trafficking.
The Pasay raid resulted in the arrest of three doctors (two from Vietnam and one from China), a Chinese pharmacist, and a Vietnamese nurse, none of whom were licensed to work in the Philippines.
These illegal clinics, which appear ordinary from the outside, house advanced technology and do not require proper identification from their clients. “These POGO hospitals don’t ask for the proper identification cards… You could be a fugitive, or you could be an illegal alien in the Philippines,” Mr. Casio explained.
The Scale of What’s to Come
The scale and sophistication of these illegal operations highlight a disturbing trend in how criminals are leveraging medical advancements to evade justice.
As authorities continue to crack down on these clandestine hospitals, the question remains: How much can you get away with when you have access to a new face and identity?
The story of these underground hospitals offers a glimpse into a world where the boundaries of medical ethics are pushed to the extreme, and the concept of identity is just another commodity to be traded.
It’s a stark reminder of the lengths to which individuals will go to escape their past and the ongoing challenge for law enforcement to keep up with such innovative forms of criminal activity.
