By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

SAYING his office must retain its autonomy, chief coroner Dr. Aurelio Espinola has asked Sen. Frank Ishizaki, R-Yona, to reconsider a provision in the reorganization bill that places the Chief Medical Examiner’s office under the proposed Department of Public Safety.
“Placing the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner under the direction of the Department of Public Safety will create problems affecting its operation,” Espinola stated in a letter to Ishizaki, author of Bill 83, which consolidates five agencies under one department.
The bill would merge the Guam Police Department, the Guam Fire Department, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Youth Affairs and the CME office.
CME has been under the supervision of the Commission on Post-Mortem Examinations for 30 years since it was created by the 11th Legislature.
“We have been able to function within our tight budget, provide excellent service and continue to meet our goals, objectives and missions of this office for 30 years with only the chief medical examiner as the agency’s head,” Espinola said.
“What benefits does Bill 83 have by placing CME office under the Department of Public Safety? What is there to improve within our agency that cannot be done unless under the Department of Public Safety?” he asked.
Police investigators and the courts use CME’s autopsy findings and reports in prosecuting criminal and civil cases. CME can be instrumental in the conviction or exoneration of a person accused of a crime, hence the office must remain “neutral and non-biased,” Espinola said.
“The chief medical examiner may not be able to fulfill his/her duties should he/she have political influence or pressure,” the chief coroner said. “The office of medical examiner’s credibility is especially vital in a court of law and in the eyes of the public.”
Espinola recalled that a similar attempt to merge CME with the Guam Memorial Hospital Administration failed in 1987 for the same reason.
He said in Houston and Detroit, where he used to work, the CME offices are under the Commissioner’s Court, the equivalent of the Commission on Post-Mortem Examinations.
Espinola, whose contract with the government is good until February 2011, warned that it might be difficult for Guam to recruit a replacement once his term expires if the proposed change to CME structure takes effect. “A qualified forensic pathologist will be hesitant to work under the direction of the Department of Public Safety,” he said.
Taking up the cudgel for Espinola, Sen. Ben Pangelinan, D-Barrigada, urged Ishizaki to exclude CME from the reorganization plan, agreeing that merging it with other departments would “present a real and perceived conflict of interest that would have a negative effect on the objectivity of the office.”