Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) president and chief executive officer Ricardo Morales on Sunday said he is considering going on leave due to corruption allegations hounding his agency.
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In a virtual press conference on Sunday, Morales gave the statement after Senate President Vicente Sotto III suggested the PhilHealth official go on leave while he is being investigated to show delicadeza.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, on the other hand, said the PhilHealth official should resign unless the allegations could be refuted.
“Unless he can credibly refute the allegations, which are supported by documents, he has no choice but to resign,” Lacson said in Filipino. “So far, at face value, I'd say the allegations are true because they are supported by documents.”
Morales on Sunday said the problem of corruption in the agency cannot be solved immediately even if the PhilHealth president is changed every month.
Morales said the problem involves long-term issues which also need long-term solutions.
Morales also said that he joined PhilHealth as a favor to a friend.
The retired military general was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte to the PhilHealth post in 2019.
The state-run health insurance company's anti-fraud legal officer, Thorrson Montes Keith, resigned last week over what he said was rampant corruption.
READ: Philhealth chief: COA can’t find graft
In his resignation letter, Keith said he opposed the mandatory PhilHealth contribution imposed on overseas Filipino workers, which he said was unconstitutional.
He also said his salary and hazard pay have been delayed since he started an investigation of some PhilHealth officials.
PhilHealth said Saturday it is prepared to undergo any investigation into alleged anomalies in the state-owned company.
PhilHealth spokesperson Gigi Domingo said the agency would cooperate with any investigation into the allegations.
Lacson said he will file on Monday a Senate resolution seeking an investigation into the alleged anomalies involving PhilHealth. Earlier, Sotto filed a similar resolution.
Lacson said his Senate resolution will focus on three major issues on alleged corruption, that is, the anomalous implementation of the interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM) of PhilHealth, the questionable budget insertions for the purchase of an ICT equipment worth P734 million, and the supposed manipulation of the agency's financial statements.
Based on documents they obtained, Lacson said PhilHealth had anomalously released a total of P247 million to three hospitals in the Bicol region and another P196 million to two hospitals in Eastern Visayas, all tertiary level hospitals, only weeks after they applied through IRM, and even though they had only one COVID-19 patient.
READ: Palace quizzes PhilHealth on ‘pricey’ test kits; P8-billion loss bared
Lacson also wants to investigate the questionable budget insertions of PhilHealth for the purchase of ICT equipment, which he said has already been flagged by the Commission on Audit.
"The description here was flagrantly inserted. DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) approved the budget for PhilHealth, but they changed it. They submitted a new list with a total amount of P734 [million]. This was flagged by COA," he said.
"There's a red flag because it’s not in the specs. The other resources, equipment not approved by DICT were merely inserted,” he added.
Lacson also said PhilHealth had supposedly manipulated its financial statements.
Lacson noted that corruption in PhilHealth seems to have become the rule rather than the exception. “And the threat posed by COVID-19 seems to have emboldened rather than deterred it,” he added.
Just to cite an example, he said the newly instituted IRM purportedly to support the national government's response to the COVID-19 threat, gives PhilHealth the authority to provide substantial aid to eligible health care institutions.
He said this new malevolent scheme led to the release of hundreds of millions of pesos in record time — in one or two weeks — to a few unaccredited hospitals that registered only one COVID-19 patient.
“That, and other mind-blowing controversies will be the focus of the Senate inquiry in the coming days when Congress starts its second regular session,” Lacson said.
“As long as the responsible officials are not made accountable for their misdeeds, PhilHealth will continue to bleed dry, thus running the risk of becoming bankrupt sooner than we think,” he added.
Sen Leila De Lima said Duterte’s favorite men are involved, if not directly responsible for the sorry state the PhilHealth is in now. Morales, under whose watch PhilHealth implemented rate hikes at the expense of OFWs who remain among the worst-hit sectors by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the “sacred cow” Health Secretary Francisco Duque who had come under fire in June 2019 for allegedly allowing a PhilHealth provincial office to rent land belonging to his family.
De Lima emphasized that Duque’s record of incompetence under this administration has been well-documented.
With him as PhilHealth’s chairman, DeLima said it was only a matter of time before he runs it into the ground.
She said PhilHealth plays a key role in our ongoing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
“PhilHealth must ensure that the hospitals, the doctors, and the health care professionals are paid in a timely manner to ensure that the quality and, more importantly, the availability of their services do not suffer,” she said.
“This rampant corruption in PhilHealth with the President’s apparent tolerance while many are languishing in poverty will go down in history as one of Mr. Duterte’s worst legacies to the Filipino people,” she added.
Morales, who said on Sunday said he is considering going on leave amid the issues hounding the agency, denied the allegation of irregularities in PhilHealth.