April 30, 2026 at – 11:57
The defense of Pánfilo Saldívar, the official detained for allegedly selling shifts and surgeries at Incan, assured that he “just wanted to help” and that he did not ask for money. His lawyer assured that the public employee did not know that there was cash inside the folder and that he supposedly thought that only medical studies were found there.
For the official’s defense, the monitored delivery of money was a “setup” and Pánfilo Saldívar never asked for bribes to prioritize patients or help them in their treatments within the National Cancer Institute (Incan).
“This happens to Mr. Pánfilo for doing a job that did not correspond to him, because made at the request of a friend. Help and guide a patient. He didn’t ask for money. They gave him a folder and inside there was money. The folder was given to him because the man wanted him to ask the doctor if his tests and studies were overdue, for that reason he gave him the folder, “He didn’t know there was money inside,” said lawyer Noelia Saldívar.
Read more: Scandal in Incan: what the Ministry of Health says about requests for bribes from patients
The official gave a statement before the Prosecutor’s Office this morning. “He explained everything, we told the prosecutor to look at the phone, everything is on the phone. He You never had contact with this patient before yesterday. They should do the investigation within Incan, follow it up,” he said for América TV.
Likewise, he assured that there is much evidence that his client only wanted to help the patient and that he always does so with many people. “They say he is a corrupt official and that is not the case. There is plenty of evidence that He helped and managed many people, even to his colleagues,” he concluded.
Read more: Incan patients repudiate irregular charges and demand guarantees in public care
Bribery scheme
The official was arrested Tuesday afternoon over allegations that he demanded bribes from patients to advance dates for medical consultations or surgeries.
The prosecutor assigned to the case, Luis Piñánezcommented that the detainee’s alleged actions could be configured as passive bribery, influence peddling or extortion.
He was captured after a monitored delivery of money coordinated by the Public Ministry with one of the complainants.
Engelberto Garcíadirector of the Anti-Corruption Department of the Ministry of Public Healthexplained that the investigation began when a patient reported the alleged bribery requests to Incan authorities, who reported the situation to the Ministry.
Due to his position in the Incan office area, the accused Pánfilo Saldívar would have had the possibility of illegally marketing the scheduling of shifts and “manage faster care for certain patients”in exchange for payments, according to García.
