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President Rodrigo Duterte gave the newly installed head of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), Dante Gierran, until December to reform the embattled agency.
In a televised briefing Thursday, Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. confirmed that the president was considering abolishing PhilHealth if Gierran did not reinstate the state health insurer by the end of the year.
“It is an ultimatum; PhilHealth needs to clean up before the end of the year, ”said Roque.
Senate President Vicente Sotto 3rd said during a meeting with Congressional leaders about
On Wednesday, the president also mentioned a desire to abolish or privatize PhilHealth.
The corruption ring at PhilHealth, first exposed by whistleblowers at the agency, has prompted the resignation of its top officials and a full-blown investigation ordered by the president.
It revealed fraudulent transactions that have enriched a well-established union and drained millions of pesos from the agency’s resources.
Roque said the president wanted Gierran to “file all the cases that need to be shelved, suspended, terminated, whatever it takes to clear the ranks of PhilHealth.”
Roque also said that Duterte had discussed closing PhilHealth with members of his
Cabinet.
Sotto said the president agreed with his proposal to appoint the finance secretary instead of the health secretary as chairman of the PhilHealth board.
Duterte and congressional leaders met in Malacañang and discussed the implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) law and PhilHealth.
Sotto said the president wanted PhilHealth abolished or privatized “but I said it would be better to wait a few months and see how [PhilHealth] the administration performs “.
In a text message, Sotto said that putting the CFO in charge of PhilHealth’s board is contained in Senate Bill (SB) 1829, which he proposed.
“I explained to him that PhilHealth is an insurance corporation and not a health entity,” he said.
Sotto also said Duterte “wants to further amend the anti-bureaucracy and ease of doing business (EODB) laws.”
“I promised to send you first a copy of a bill that we will prepare in coordination with the
HoR (House of Representatives) before applying, ”Sotto said.
He said that the Secretary of Health Francisco Duque 3 was not mentioned in the meeting although
“He was ready to talk about it, but he didn’t mention the name.”
Duque is also chairman of the PhilHealth board. He has been linked to questionable transactions at the agency.
The president has rejected Duque’s impeachment requests, not only for his alleged mismanagement of the Department of Health (DoH) campaign against the coronavirus pandemic, but also for being implicated in anomalies at PhilHealth.
Introducing SB 1829, Sotto said that since one of PhilHealth’s critical mandates is to have “sustainable fund management to ensure the continued delivery of health care services, it is considered appropriate and appropriate for the chairman of the board to be the Secretary of Finance and not the Secretary of Health ”.
He said that “the avoidance and departure of the current Secretary of Health (Duque) to fulfill his term as chairman of the PhilHealth board, by placing a representative in his place, clearly defeated the intention of the law that obliges the Secretary of Health to be president of PhilHealth. “
The CFO “would be the most capable and effective to be the chairman of the PhilHealth board. The Secretary of Health continues to serve on the board to provide the necessary links to align the Department of Health and PhilHealth, ”Sotto said.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said the EODB Law “is more than enough.”
“The problem is that it is not being implemented properly and few or no cases have been brought against government personnel who make mistakes in violation of the law,” Zubiri said.
He said he has not yet heard reports that the Anti-Bureaucracy Authority (ARTA), charged with filing the necessary complaints with the Ombudsman, has filed cases against violators of the EODB Law.
Zubiri said the ARTA must “implement the law correctly and not be afraid to bring cases against it under the harsh penalties of the law.”
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