The Philippine Online Chronicles

Hayden Kho Jr.'s medical license has been cancelled due to his involvement in the 2009 sex video scandal, but he can still regain it by filing an appeal.

The Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) revoked his license yesterday, dismissing his petition to reverse the PRC's November 2009 decision “revoking his authority to practice the medical profession.”

The said license cancellation came after the PRC's medical examinations board found Kho “guilty of immorality and unethical conduct” due to his videos which featured his sexual acts with different women, including actress Katrina Halili.

Dr. Restituto Ocampo, member of the PRC medical board, said that although the PRC has stripped Kho of his medical license, “it is not permanent and Kho may regain it after submitting an appeal and proving to the commission that he has changed and has now good morals.”

However, Ocampo noted that “two years have passed, but since he failed to surrender his license (after the medical board's decision in 2009), he cannot yet file an appeal to regain it. I don't know their reason, but maybe he really has no interest to perform medical practice anymore.”

On PRC's ruling, Kho commented, “I'm losing my medical license not because of lack of knowledge or skills or even lack of dedication to my profession,” adding that the decision was “painful” and “difficult to accept.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Bong Revilla Jr., then-chair of Senate committee of public information and mass media who conducted the inquiry on the sex video scandals, lauded the PRC's decision which he said is an affirmation of the Senate's findings on the case.

“As the government instrumentality that is tasked to ensure the integrity of the practice of all professionals in the country, the Professional Regulation Commission made the right decision,” Revilla said.

He added, “What Dr. Hayden Kho did is indeed an unethical offense and we must not forget that he did it wittingly at the expense and humiliation of the women he wickedly videotaped.”

Halili's legal counsel, Atty. Raymund Palad said that the cancellation of Kho's license is a “strong message that justice is still present here in our system, and that people like Hayden has no place in the medical profession.”