Doc denies accessing president's med files

MANILA, Philippines, July 15 (UPI) -- An attorney for a Philippines doctor accused of opening the medical files of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo says she never did it.

Unnamed official sources told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that Dr. Maria Niza Bermudez Reyes, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Manila, has been fingered by three members of the hospital staff as the person who ordered them to open the president's medical files without official authorization.

But Edwin Lacierda, Reyes' lawyer and brother-in-law, says the doctor did no such thing, the newspaper reported Wednesday.

"Dr. Reyes categorically denied the assertions of those three non-medical staff," he said. "In fact, we presented a timeline which will show that it was impossible for her to open the file because she was with a client at that time."

Lacierda also blamed a faulty computer security system at the hospital for a leak in which it was revealed that Macapagal-Arroyo underwent breast augmentation surgery there.

Doctors at the hospital "do not have (computer) passwords," he said. "Only the members of the non-medical staff do, and they can open anybody's files, I mean anybody."