Duterte vows to work on cases vs erring PhilHealth execs until term ends
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte vowed he will go after erring officials of the Philippine Health Insurance (PhilHealth) Corp., currently under probe over corruption allegations, in the remaining years of his term.
In an Inter-Agency Task Force meeting aired Tuesday, Duterte said that he would use the remaining two years of his term in working on cases against corrupt officials and personnel of PhilHealth.
“If that is the only work that will be left in my remaining two years, that is what I will do,” he said in Filipino.
“One of the few things that I can do in the remaining two years of my term, I will use my time to work on the cases for people who are involved in the PhilHealth,” Duterte added.
The president previously ordered the creation of a high-level, inter-agency task force, led by Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, to probe the allegations of anomalies and corruption surrounding the state insurer.
Among the allegations is the pocketing of some P15 billion of the agency’s money through fraudulent schemes, as floated by former anti-fraud legal officer Thorrsson Keith.
‘Task Force PhilHealth’
In the same meeting, Guevarra said the panel urged the members to expedite their ongoing probes and special audits, and resolve pending cases involving PhilHealth.
“Task Force PhilHealth” has members from the Office of the Ombudsman, Commission on Audit, Civil Service Commission, Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, Office of the Special Assistant to the President and the National Bureau of Investigation.
This resulted in the preventive suspension of 13 former and current officials of the state insurer that, according to PhilHealth, was over a grave misconduct complaint by regional officers between 2017 and 2019.
Guevarra also said that they are focusing their investigation on certain issues such as the agency’s IT system, legal sector, Interim and Reimbursement Mechanism and financial management.
The DOJ chief said PhilHealth’s IT system is “fragmented and... can easily be manipulated because there is no centralized control over management information system,” while the state insurer’s legal sector is a “ripe source of irregularities.”
Guevarra also said the panel “zeroed in” on issues surrounding the IRM, which is a mechanism for calamitous events. One of the issues tackled in the congressional hearing is the alleged favoritism in the disbursement of billions of pesos under the IRM.
Guevarra also said they formed composite teams with members for the NBI, COA auditors, Anti-Money Laundering Council and the PACC that will follow through and investigate more deeply into information the task force received.
Structural reforms at PhilHealth
The DOJ chief said that they aim to file legal actions to the Office of the Ombudsman within the 30-day limit Duterte had set for the task force. He added that the panel also aims to make recommendations for structural reform at the state insurer.
“In the course of our investigation, we will probably be able to discover what structural reforms needed to be done at PhilHealth and we’re hoping in this regard... the Government Owned and Controlled Corporations under the Office of the President, [Governance Commission for GOCCs] will be able to make proposal for the reorganization whether partial or total of PhilHealth,” Guevarra added.
He also said they broached the idea of creating an interim management committee for PhilHealth to the GCG. — Kristine Joy Patag
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