More PhilHealth Officials Can Be Charged – DOJ

MANILA, Philippines – Attorney General Menardo Guevarra said Tuesday that the investigation into alleged mass corruption at Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) will continue and that “more people may be charged.”

Malacañang also said that the recommendation of a task force led by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to bring criminal charges against top PhilHealth officials was “just the beginning,” in the hope that Health Secretary Francisco Duque III , president of PhilHealth, would not have mounted liability for the mess on the state health insurer.

On Monday night, President Rodrigo Duterte approved the task force’s recommendation to bring criminal charges against former PhilHealth president and CEO Ricardo Morales; the senior vice president (SVP) of information technologies Jovita Aragona; interim senior manager of information technology Calixto Gabuya Jr.; Senior Vice President of Fund Management Renato Limsiaco Jr .; Senior Vice President for Health Financing Policy, Israel Francis Pargas; Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and Interim President Arnel de Jesus; and Division Chief Bobby Crisostomo.

The charges were corruption, misappropriation and illegal use of public funds, and gross misconduct and gross negligence, among other crimes that had allegedly cost PhilHealth P154 billion in corruption losses since 2003.

Several senators expressed disappointment Tuesday at the task force’s decision not to recommend charges against Duque, who an investigation by the Senate committee as a whole found liable for negligence that had led to losses that brought PhilHealth to the brink of bankruptcy.

“I am stunned,” said the President of the Senate, Vicente Sotto III, who led the

Senate Investigation of Alleged PhilHealth Fraud.

“Article 217 of [the Revised Penal Code] It’s very clear. Perhaps the Ombudsman would have a better perspective on the [PhilHealth irregularities]”Sotto said.

He was referring to the law that criminalizes the misappropriation of public funds, which states that government officials who allowed the misappropriation of taxpayers’ money with consent or “through abandonment or negligence” must be held criminally liable.

Sotto previously said that Duque’s claim that he was unaware of the alleged misuse of PhilHealth funds was a virtual admission of the negligence of the health chief as head of the health insurance company.

“It is good that the Ombudsman does not trust [on task forces for its investigations]. They have powers of their own accord, ”Sotto said.

‘Initial findings’

But Guevarra said the task force report that was presented to the president, who had ordered the investigation, covered only the group’s “initial findings.”

“More investigations will be carried out and more people may be charged,” Guevarra said when asked why Duque and PhilHealth, senior vice president of the legal sector, Rodolfo del Rosario, were not found responsible.

He said the composite teams created by the task force would continue the investigation and file criminal or administrative complaints “when the backlog of cases or the collection of evidence is completed.”

Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said that the responsibility of health institutions that benefited from irregular reimbursements “is one of the aspects that they (the composite teams) are analyzing.”

Complaints against Morales and the other six PhilHealth officials will be filed with the Office of the Ombudsman, concerned prosecutors and PhilHealth for administrative cases, he said.

Guevarra said that representatives from the Ombudsman’s Office, the Audit Commission and the Civil Service Commission, which are conducting their own investigations, attended the seven hearings of the working group “as invited participants.”

“They did not participate in the evaluation and recommendations made by the Department of Justice,” he said.

Perete explained that the DOJ members in the task force did the “investigation of the facts” and that it would be up to the prosecutors to “independently and objectively evaluate and evaluate the evidence to be presented.”

Reprimand for Duke, board

The task force recommended that the president “strongly admonish and remind” the president and board members “of the grave consequences of their action or inaction.”

In Malacañang, presidential spokesman Harry Roque, asked if Duque was not yet acquitted, said: “This is just the beginning. The report states that the National Investigation Office and the Department of Health will continue their investigation, and the Ombudsman will continue with his own investigation.

In a statement released Tuesday, PhilHealth said it would continue to cooperate with investigators, as it expressed hope that the filing of charges against its top officials would allow those “innocent” of the crime they had been charged with the opportunity to clean up. their names. .

Senator Christopher “Bong” Go, chairman of the Senate health committee, said the task force’s investigation should lead to corrupt PhilHealth officials being jailed as the president had ordered.

In its report to the chairman, the working group said that the board of directors and executive committee “who are supposed to establish the policies and operational guidelines for the management of PhilHealth have not shown the due diligence required of them in the performance of its functions . “

“While it found that the board was negligent in some of its decisions, the working group noted, however, that such negligence was mitigated by the active concealment of vital documents and the apparent misrepresentation by those who have sought approval of the board, ”he said.

The investigation focused on three issues: the interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM), the purchase of information and communication technology (ICT) equipment, and the lack of prosecution and sanctioning of PhilHealth staff, health institutions, and health care providers. medical professionals who make mistakes.

The task force said it found “negligence” on the part of the executive committee and the board in implementing IRM, a special financial assistance program for health care providers.

Insufficient guidelines

IRM’s fund releases were rushed without sufficient guidance and tracking, making the disbursements “susceptible to abuse,” he said.

He said members of the executive committee deliberately withheld “important information or audit documents” in order to obtain board approval of the requested budget to acquire certain ICT equipment.

A request that involved a budget of more than P730 million did not meet the legal requirement to be included in PhilHealth’s information system strategic plan.

The task force also noted PhilHealth’s policy of granting a “total amnesty” in favor of healthcare institutions with claims that can no longer be enforced against the company.

It found cases in which payments from healthcare institutions were diverted to a private account or an undisclosed account, but PhilHealth did not file a criminal complaint against the perpetrators.

Senator Panfilo Lacson, who initiated the Senate investigation along with Sotto, declined to comment on the task force’s recommendations and said he had not yet read the full report.

But he said that the documents and other evidence that the Senate plenary commission had presented to Guevarra had been “at least taken advantage of.”

“This is reason enough to be satisfied that we have done our part in taking the first big step to hold criminally and administratively responsible those responsible for the misuse and abuse of public money,” Lacson said.

Senator Francis Pangilinan said Duque’s exoneration “is no longer surprising,” as the Duterte administration had a long record of protecting its allies implicated in corruption.

“The list of corrupt and incompetent untouchables in this administration is getting longer and longer,” Pangilinan said.

–With reporting from Marlon Ramos, Julie M. Aurelio, and Jovic Yee

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