Duterte: Best for Morales to step down

Duterte noted PhilHealth chief’s health situation, says Guevarra

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte believes that Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) president and chief executive officer (CEO) Ricardo Morales should vacate his post, considering his health condition, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said yesterday.

“The President took note last night of Morales’ on-and-off health situation, and stated that it would be best for the latter and for PhilHealth to give up his post during these critical times for the agency,” Guevarra said in a text message sent to reporters.

“Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea added that he had talked earlier to Morales, and that the latter said he would understand if he had to be replaced,” Guevarra added.

As this developed, the Senate Blue Ribbon committee yesterday recommended the filing of graft charges against former health secretary Janette Garin and former budget chief Florencio Abad as well as senior officials of PhilHealth for alleged anomalies that the panel investigated a year ago.

Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the committee, recommended that Garin, who is now Iloilo congresswoman; Abad; former PhilHealth president Alex Padilla and eight regional vice presidents (RVPs) of the agency be charged for violating Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for the alleged malversation of tens of billions of pesos in public funds.

A summary of the report provided by Gordon also indicated the panel asked the Office of the Ombudsman to study whether or not the same officials should be charged with plunder for “pillaging” PhilHealth.

“PhilHealth is no longer being used to serve the people. It is now used to serve the interest of the powerful and the greedy inside the institution. With its infamously known failure to pay legitimate claims on time and its inordinate speed in the payment of dubious claims, upcasing and overpayment, Philhealth has become ‘FailHealth’ and its economic life has become fragile ‘kahit kumikita siya (even if it is earning income),” Gordon told reporters.

The release of the report came almost a year after the panel conducted an investigation into alleged anomalies in PhilHealth shortly after Duterte appointed Morales, to clean up the agency.

Gordon’s release of the report also came days before the Senate Committee of the Whole, chaired by Senate President Vicente Sotto III, is expected to present its own report on the latest set of corruption allegations, this time with Morales in the hot seat.

Gordon said he was willing to have his report incorporated in Sotto’s special panel or be adopted separately even as he stressed his findings were not totally at loggerheads with the possible conclusions of the Committee of the Whole, where all the senators are members.

The Blue Ribbon report also spoke of the existence of a PhilHealth “mafia,” but curiously, its members were the same PhilHealth officials touted as whistle-blowers or “reformers” in the agency in the Committee of the Whole inquiry, which wrapped up its hearings last week.

Gordon recounted a long list of incidents of alleged malversation of PhilHealth funds, including the maneuvering by Abad, Garin, and Padilla to divert some P10.6 billion allocated for premiums of senior citizens and for Department of Health infrastructure projects in 2015.

Among the projects were the construction of barangay health stations and school-based health kits. However, a 2017 report from the Commission on Audit showed that only 13.3 percent of the health stations were completed while the check-up kits were overpriced more than three times.

“What the Committee noticed is the parallelism between Dengvaxia and the 2015 PhilHealth Senior Citizen Fund: both were intended to siphon funds from PhilHealth to finance the 2016 elections,” Gordon said.

He also mentioned names of members of the alleged mafia or the “Mindanao Group” who were either RVPs or managers who have been at the posts for some 20 years, having connections with ranking officials “enough to be able to sow intrigues that can result in kicking PhilHealth presidents out.”

He pointed out PhilHealth had 13 presidents since 1995, a revolving door situation caused by members of the “mafia.”

Among the members of the “mafia” he named were RVP Paolo Johann Perez, who among other allegations, had a girl clad in just “underwear” dancing in front of him during a celebration of his birthday in his office.

He also mentioned Valerie Hollero, Dennis Adre, William Chavez, Jelbert Galicto, Khaliquzzma Macabato, Dr. Miriam Grace Pamonag and Masiding Alonto as members of the group. With the exception of Galicto, all those he named were RVPs.

These individuals earlier this month filed leaves to pave the way for the investigation of the task force formed by Duterte to investigate anomalies in PhilHealth.

Hollero, Galicto and Adre were among those who provided documents to the Committee of the Whole and testified on what they knew of the anomalies.

Adre described the contents of Gordon’s report as “grossly false and libelous” even as he maintained his group was the “good mafia.”

“We take offense that we’re being accused by the (Blue Ribbon) committee of the same offenses that we helped uncover,” Adre said.

He said they would consult with their lawyers to determine what legal remedies they could take amid the report.

Rody to run after PhilHealth execs

Duterte has vowed to spend the remaining two years of his term building cases against people involved in alleged massive corruption at PhilHealth.

Duterte said all officials behind the anomalies in the state-run insurer should be placed behind bars.

“PhilHealth (issue) should be investigated and everyone (involved) should be prosecuted and jailed. If that’s the only work I can do in the remaining two years, I would do that,” the President said in a taped public address aired yesterday.

“One of the few things that I can do in the remaining two years of my term, I will spend my time (working) on the cases for people who are involved in PhilHealth anomalies,” he added.

A multi-agency task force led by the justice department is now looking into the issues hounding PhilHealth. The task force is composed of the Office of the Ombudsman, Civil Service Commission, Office of the Executive Secretary, Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission and Palace Undersecretary Melchor Quitain.

Duterte said he would impose stricter measures to ensure that the funds of state-run entities such as PhilHealth would not be wasted on corruption.

He ordered agencies to publish all procurement plans even for the smallest items, such as paper clips.

Guevarra said the task force is also looking into the interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM) for hospitals and PhilHealth’s financial management.

Guevarra proposed to the President to instruct the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations to form an interim management committee to supervise PhilHealth.

CSC chief accused of cover-up

Meanwhile, Civil Service Commission (CSC) chief Alicia Bala was accused yesterday of suppressing evidence during congressional investigation on anomalies hounding PhilHealth.

CSC Commissioner Aileen Lizada accused Bala of giving instructions not to disclose to the House investigating joint panel information on cases lodged before the agency involving PhilHealth officials.

During the continuation of the House probe on PhilHealth anomalies, public accounts committee chair Mike Defensor asked Lizada if there was a move within the CSC to suppress information shared with the congressional panel, particularly on complaints filed against PhilHealth officials.

“We had a meeting ever since the memorandum of the President. Right away we had a virtual meeting. Yes sir, there was a guidance regarding your concern,” Lizada told Defensor.

Asked who gave such instruction, Lizada responded, “the chairperson,” referring to Bala.

Lizada was then asked to go into details of the supposed instruction.

“If my recollection serves me right, she (Bala) said - this information should not be made public nor should be given out to anyone who would be asking either in aid of legislation or investigation. That’s how I recall it,” she replied.

But CSC Assistant Commissioner Ariel Ronquillo refuted Lizada’s allegation and denied that there was guidance from Bala to suppress information regarding the cases against PhilHealth officials.

“Categorically, I will say that I did not hear that guidance being given by the chair,” said Ronquillo, who was deputized by Bala to represent her in the hearing.

Due to the contradicting statements from the two CSC officials, the House joint panel decided to invite Bala to attend the next hearing tomorrow.

The panel also approved a motion to subpoena the audio recording as well as the minutes of the CSC meeting, and the listing of cases involving PhilHealth officials. – Edu Punay