"These con men can look straight into your eyes and deny any wrongdoing."
"These con men can look straight into your eyes and deny any wrongdoing."
It is welcome news that the Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the suspension of several officials of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
The anti-graft office under Ombudsman Samuel R. Martires joins the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Department of Justice, and the National Bureau of Investigation in uncovering the well-entrenched mafia that has fleeced PhilHealth of multi-billion pesos.
This is certainly one case where the Ombudsman must come on strong as it did in ordering motu propio the preventive suspension of at least 13 PhilHealth officials allegedly involved in massive irregularities.
Suspended for six months without pay are: Dennis Mas, Senior Vice President (SVP) for Management Services Sector; Israel Pargas, SVP for health finance and policy sector; Shirley Domingo, Vice President for Corporate Affairs Group and Rodolfo Del Rosario, legal sector chief; Roy Ferrer, Celestina Ma Jude dela Serna, Ruben John Basa, Raul Dominic Badilla, Angelito Grande, Lawrence Mijares, Leila Tuazon, Clementine Bautista, and Eugenio Donatos II.
The Ombudsman, who said it would coordinate with the Presidential Task Force headed by the Department of Justice (DOJ), earned kudos from various camps.
Some lawmakers said that top PhilHealth officials should also be sacked, namely Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque, who sits as PhilHealth Board Chairman and PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales.
Duque would not heed the widespread clamor for his resignation for as long as he enjoys the trust and confidence of President Duterte.
Apparently, the enormous irregularities at PhilHealth that dwarf the Good Conduct Time Allowance racket at the Bureau of Corrections (BoC) may not be enough to shake the President’s loyalty to Duque, as well as Morales.
Morales is on leave of absence August 17 to 28 while undergoing treatment for lymphoma or cancer of the lymph nodes. He skipped the Senate hearing Tuesday.
PhilHealth executive vice president and COO Arnel De Jesus, who was appointed officer-in-charge, was supposed to be Morales’ representative in the Senate hearing but he was also a no-show due to a scheduled medical check-up.
At the hearing, Duque vehemently denied the allegations against him and other PhilHealth officials, in the same fashion he has denied alleged graft practices at the DOH in connection with the government efforts on COVID-19 crisis.
When grilled by Senator Ping Lacson, however, Duque admitted that cash advances made by PhilHealth to maternity clinics and dialysis centers such as B. Braun Avitum under the controversial Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) are illegal, similar to the Wellness Clinic ghost dialysis racket.
Thorrsson Keith, resigned anti-fraud legal officer, tagged Duque as the “Godfather” of the Mafia that has fleeced the state insurer of funds amounting to over P154 billion since 2014.
Keith accused Duque of tolerating the malpractices of his appointed officials allegedly involved in the anomalies.
Senate President Tito Sotto said Senior Vice Presidents Renato Limsiaco Jr. and Jovita Aragona were linked to the anomalous use of the P30-billion IRM funds and the botched overpriced P2.1-billion information technology project.
Sotto said he terminated the Senate investigation after three hearings as the senators have had enough of the “carousel of lies” from the PhilHealth officials.
That made me recall my days as a police reporter, encountering suspects arrested by Manila policemen.
Even when caught in the act, hardened criminals or recidivists would look straight into your eyes and deny any wrongdoing.
Government officials who lack accountability are worse than thieves, robbers, holdup men and con artists on the streets.
I agree with Senator Sotto that we have had enough of Duque and PhilHealth officials’ second, third waves of lies
As an adage attributed to Abe Lincoln says, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
