"This is it for the PhilHealth mafia."
"This is it for the PhilHealth mafia."
The obscenity shown in the video of a scantily clad girl performing a lap dance in front of a Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) official dramatizes the decadence that the conduct of public service has been reduced to.
PhilHealth Region 4A Vice President Paolo Johann Perez was shown being treated by his amorous staff to a “maÅ„anita” PhilHealth-style to celebrate his birthday right at their offices.
Insiders apparently sent the video clip to Senator Dick Gordon, chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee in the wake of chorus of denials from PhilHealth officials of involvement in multi-billion-peso irregularities being investigated by both Houses of the 18th Congress.
Extravagant partying and pillaging of PhilHealth’s coffers have been the order of business for years as corruption gripped in the agency’s national and the regional offices, like cancer from top to bottom.
Such indulgence is an accepted practice that aggravates the difficulties being experienced by poor Filipinos who are hospitalized and who need to avail of their PhilHealth coverage.
People almost always literally must beg to be spared of the red tape so they could obtain their PhilHealth benefits which they have paid for through contributions deducted from their salaries.
With the Senate and the House panels winding up their parallel inquiries in aid of legislation into the massive PhilHealth anomalies, recommendations will be endorsed to Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra for filing of appropriate criminal and administrative charges against the culprits.
The resignations of PhilHealth President and Chief Executive Officer Ricardo Morales and Senior Vice President for legal sector Rodolfo Del Rosario do not necessarily exempt them from possible liabilities.
Indeed, the Senate under the leadership of Sen. Tito Sotto deserves the accolades for yet another major accomplishment.
According to Gordon, his panel established the existence of a PhilHealth “mafia.” and Among its supposed members are at least seven of the agency’s regional vice presidents and one legal officer.
One of the whistleblowers in the corruption scandal tagged no less than Health Secretary Francisco Duque III as the “godfather” of the alleged mafia.
Thorrson Montes Keith, former PhilHealth anti-fraud officer, said Duque was responsible for approving the appointment of executive officials who are allegedly part of the powerful mafia.
Senator Panfilo Lacson said the Senate committee of the whole may recommend malversation charges against certain officials allegedly mishandling public funds.
The corruption scandal has also implicated Civil Service Commission Chairperson Alicia dela Rosa Bala who allegedly ordered CSC commissioners not to disclose details of pending administrative cases against PhilHealth executives.
CSC commissioner Aileen Lizada, during the joint House committee hearing last Tuesday, revealed that Bala used to be an ex-officio member of the PhilHealth Board and was among those implicated in the complaint filed before the Ombudsman questioning the PhilHealth Board’s illegal installation of Celestina Ma. Jude Dela Serna as president.
Bala is reportedly also a close ally of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, her CSC predecessor who is now the PhilHealth chairperson.
We can only hope that with all the findings of both Houses of the Congress, the would-be findings of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and the findings of the Presidential Task Force, the PhilHealth plunderers will finally be brought to justice.
It’s the end of the road for the dreaded PhilHealth mafia.
