"The problem at the agency is described as deep-seated and long-term."
Days before he formally assumed office in June 2016, President Duterte vowed to rid the government of corruption.
“Huwag na huwag talaga akong makarinig ng corruption, not even a whiff or whisper. I will fire you or place you somewhere. Mamili kayo: Comval o Jolo, he said, referring to Compostela Valley, now Davao de Oro, a hotbed of communist NPA, and Jolo, Sulu, lair of terrorist Abu Sayyaf.
True to his word, what he has accomplished in his anti-corruption drive proportionately was as much as he did in anti-illegal drugs drive.
But, four years into the Duterte administration, corruption remains widespread, as deeply-rooted as the culture of impunity that some government agencies seem exempted from the axe of Damocles.
Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is one such agency that has gotten away with not only a whiff but a reeking stench of corruption for quite sometime. and PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo C. Morales has barely done anything about it.
PhilHealth is a government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC), attached to the Department of Health (DOH). Its task is to implement universal health insurance that costs those employed about three percent of monthly salary.
After the exposé on the “ghost dialysis” services paid for by PhilHealth from 2016 to 2018, rampant graft practices continued in the agency, apparently undaunted by Manong Digong’s war cry against the thieves cloaked as public servants.
The ghost dialysis scandal, which is believed to be only the tip of the iceberg, further eroded PhilHealth’s credibility and fueled the public sentiment against mandatory PhilHealth contributions deemed as a “highway robbery.”
Last week, the massive corruption in PhilHealth has led to the resignation of at least three PhilHealth executives, namely Thorsson Montes Keith, anti-fraud legal officer; Etrobal Bai Laborte, head executive assistant of Morales, and one Atty. Labe, legal officer.
Manong Digong luckily caught a whiff PhilHealth’s corruption that he ordered an investigation by the Office of the Special Assistant to the President headed by Undersecretary Jesus Melchor Quitain.
The alarming allegations also prompted calls for a full-blown Senate inquiry across party lines, including Senate President Tito Sotto, Senators Ping Lacson, Franklin Drilon, Sonny Angara, Koko Pimentel and Risa Hontiveros.
But, retired Philippine Army general Morales, a veteran of the Mindanao war against Muslim rebels, may not mind being thrown to PhilHealth branches in Comval or Jolo.
First, he has vehemently denied the allegations of a mafia-like collusion fleecing the agency as “preposterous,” only to admit having “prepositioned” PhilHealth funds for COVID-19 cases as early as March.
His admission confirmed Sen. Lacson’s disclosure that PhilHealth released P247 million to one hospital in Bicol with only one COVID-19 case at the time, P196 million to another hospital in Eastern Visayas and hundreds of million pesos more to five other hospitals in two other regions.
Morales defended the disbursements as preparations for what he had foreseen as a worsening COVID-19 epidemic.
I surely hope that Secretary Duque had possessed Morales’ sense of foresight which might have prevented this crisis that we were totally unprepared for.
In the same fashion, Duque might have “prepositioned” DOH funds for nationwide swab-testing and establishing testing laboratories.
Morales himself admitted the problem of corruption at PhilHealth is “deep-seated and long-term,” saying that reform does not happen overnight.
I strongly hope he does not subscribe to the old saying, “If you can’t beat them, join them.”
