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President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday that he would not abolish the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) amid alleged corruption at the agency.
“PhilHealth is gone… I really won’t dismantle it because it’s not easy; It’s not easy to create another (I won’t abolish PhilHealth because it’s not easy to create another), ”Duterte said.
However, he warned agency officials that the resignation will not save them from criminal liability.
“The first thing I said I’d do for you, PhilHealth, and I really do. Many of them have now been removed; “The others resigned (I said I would go after corrupt officials, and I did. Many of them have been fired, the rest have resigned),” the president said.
“Let me remind everyone in this administration. Your resignation will not save your neck, “he added.
Earlier this month, at least 43 PhilHealth officials resigned or retired after PhilHealth President Dante Gierran issued a memorandum calling for the courtesy resignation of all officials with salary grade 26 or higher.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said the president does not want PhilHealth removed now because he is confident that the government’s efforts to clean up the corruption agency are paying off.
“We have done a lot in cleaning up PhilHealth and that will continue (We have cleaned up PhilHealth and that will continue),” added Roque.
Duterte reiterated that Health Secretary Fransisco Duque 3rd is not involved in corruption at PhilHealth.
“It could be other things, but corruption, pear, wala,” said the president of Duque, who is also president of PhilHealth.
Load them
But the joint House panel that investigated alleged corruption at the state insurer approved the committee’s report recommending charges against Duque and former PhilHealth president and CEO Ricardo Morales, among others.
The panel recommended the filing of corruption charges against officials in the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the agency’s Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) program.
The other officials the panel wanted charged are Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Arnel de Jesus; Senior Vice Presidents (SVP) Israel Francis Pargas and Renato Limsiaco Jr.; Former Senior Vice President Rodolfo del Rosario Jr .; Senior Manager Rogelio Pocallan Jr.; and the directors Duque, Silvestre Bello 3rd, Wendel Avisado, Rolando Joselito Bautista, Carlos Dominguez 3rd, María Graciela Gonzaga, Alejandro Cabading, Susan Mercado and Marlene Padua.
“While the idea behind the IRM may be commendable, the mechanism itself is flawed and encourages large-scale corruption and collusion between PhilHealth officials and HCIs. [or Health Care Institutions], and although the program uses the term reimbursement, the IRM is actually a cash program whose legal basis PhilHealth has not provided to this investigative body, ”said the report of the Public Accounts and Good Governance and Public Responsibility Committees of the camera.
Lawmakers said the legal basis for the IRM was unclear.
The joint panel also recommended the filing of charges against former Health Secretary Enrique Ona and all ex officio and appointed PhilHealth to board members who approved the IRM.
“PhilHealth had already overpaid hospitals P102.5 billion between 2013 and 2018, while estimated losses from fraudulent activities amounted to P51.2 billion,” he said.
According to the panel report, the total estimated amount of loss from 2013 to 2018 “was approximately P153.7 billion.”
With reports from REINA TOLENTINO
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