New head of PhilHealth ordered to change regional vice presidents

MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte ordered Dante Gierran, the new president of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), to clean up the bribery-riddled health insurer and send its corrupt officials to jail.

“I pity the country. My heart bleeds for my country. The incessant corruption, with no end in sight and other upcoming elections, and you see the same old faces there. So the same old system with his men in place, ”Duterte told Gierran in a televised speech Monday night after he appointed the retired director of the National Bureau of Investigation as head of PhilHealth.

Duterte ordered Gierran to remove all regional vice presidents “whether they act on a par or on par with the other good guys” for the next “two or three days.”

“You know, if they’re there for that long, the element of familiarity always comes into play. That is the difficulty there. If they have been there long enough, remove them. Those who do not want to be removed, report me, ”said the president.

According to presidential spokesman Harry Roque, the president’s order was to reorganize, not fire regional vice presidents.

“I think this should be done regularly, because they shouldn’t stay long in the regional offices. They usually have their own ‘kingdom’. So it’s just a reorganization, “Roque said at a news conference Tuesday.

Gordon’s recommendation

It was unclear if the president’s directive was related to Senator Richard Gordon’s recommendation last week to bring criminal charges against the “Mindanao Group” of regional vice presidents who have held office for more than 20 years and allegedly pocketed the 20 percent in racket bribes of billions of pesos.

The president told Gierran that the next two years would be spent cleaning up PhilHealth and fighting corrupt officials.

“So you have to send these guys to jail, because that’s really a problem,” he said.

Gierran, 65, replaces Ricardo Morales, a retired army general, who was told last week by the president to resign for health reasons.

Gierran headed the NBI regional office in Davao before serving four years as head of the NBI until his retirement last February.

Roque said Gierran had met the statute’s requirement that the PhilHealth president must have seven years of management experience.

The law requires the PhilHealth board to recommend as chairperson someone who also has experience in public health, health finance, and health economics or a combination of these fields of expertise.

‘White collar crimes’

Roque said Gierran’s criminal investigation background would be very helpful in his new role.

“Because crimes at PhilHealth are white-collar crimes, he (PhilHealth president) needs to be someone who understands financial reports, financial records, and account statements. I think Gierran is the best option because it is a CPA [certified public accountant] and a lawyer with experience in criminal investigation, ”said Roque.

Gierran belongs to the same fraternity as the president, Lex Talionis Fraternitas at San Beda College of Law.

In 2016, confessed Davao Death Squad member Edgar Matobato linked Gierran to the 2007 murder of a man who was allegedly fed crocodiles. Gierran denied the allegations.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III also said Gierran was “a very good choice.”

“Aside from a clean record, he has investigative skills that can break the whip to uncover anomalies in the agency,” Sotto said in a Viber message.

Kiko’s ‘serious misgivings’

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan said he had “serious misgivings” about Gierran’s lack of qualifications to run the government agency responsible for providing health insurance coverage to all Filipinos.

He told the Inquirer that the country needed “a more holistic rather than simplistic law enforcement approach to the cancer facing PhilHealth in particular and the COVID-19 health crisis in general.”

“His predecessor also had no public health experience and that ended terribly for PhilHealth. For the sake of PhilHealth, despite my serious misgivings, I hope it succeeds where others have failed, ”he said.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto suggested that Gierran recruit officials from the Philippine General Hospital to be part of a “multidisciplinary team, without a single OJT (on-the-job trainee).”

“This is so because this management change is similar to changing surgeons in the middle of an operation,” Recto said.

Sen. Sonny Angara said the new head of PhilHealth should make use of the new technology to root out fraud and replace the faulty information system of the state health insurer.

“It should guide PhilHealth into the 21st century using tools like information technology, blockchain and the like. It must also update the case rate system, which has led to systemic corruption at the expense, tragically, of the people who need it most, ”Angara said.

‘Like a pit of snakes’

Gierran told CNN Philippines in an interview on Tuesday that he planned to “renew” the agency “in two to three days from today.”

It also said it would immediately investigate alleged irregularities in the disbursement of PhilHealth funds, purportedly for members’ medical benefits related to COVID-19.

The planned remodel would require him to create “my own management committee,” he said.

“They told me that PhilHealth is like a snake pit. I have to be careful and one way to (do that) is to choose the right people to be with me, ”Gierran said.

He said he would “give the people at PhilHealth the benefit of the doubt,” believing there were “a lot of good people” who would support a “good cause.”

In a separate interview with the ABS-CBN news channel, he said that although he was “scared” by the job the president gave him, he expressed his determination to do it.

“I am afraid because No. 1, I do not know how PhilHealth works… I have no experience [in] public health. What I have knowledge of is financial management, being a certified public accountant, and law, insurance and, of course, my research knowledge, “said Gierran.

He said his job was “to restore the confidence of the people” and asked to be given “the opportunity to lead.”

“Do not judge me. After all, if I can’t do my job, I’ll tell my manager that I can’t do my job, ”Gierran added.

–With reporting from Marlon Ramos, Cathy Cañares Yamsuan and Jovic Yee

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