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Friday, March 29, 2024

Gierran told: ‘Get the big fish’; 40 linked to pocketing OFW premiums

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Senators on Wednesday gave the newly appointed president of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) the benefit of the doubt, saying he had the qualifications to rid the state insurance agency of deep-seated corruption.

Senator Risa Hontiveros said Dante Gierran, a seasoned crime investigator with administrative management skills who headed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), needed to hit the ground running and go after the big fish.

Meanwhile, a former PhilHealth official claimed at least 40 individuals in the government health insurer are involved in pocketing premiums contributed by migrant workers, as he detailed how the “syndicate” within the agency allegedly operated.

Ken Sarmiento, former senior auditing specialist of PhilHealth, said contributions paid by over 7,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) ended up in corrupt officials’ pockets instead of the agency’s coffers.

“We learned that 7,257 OFWs did not have their premiums deposited… PhilHealth did not receive their premiums,” Sarmiento claimed during the joint inquiry of the House committees on Public Accounts and Good Government and Public Accountability.

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The former auditor said he was able to detect two schemes ran by the 40 PhilHealth officers — one of retail fraud where each OFW would get a receipt, and another on a “wholesale” with the involvement of the worker’s hiring agency.

“Mayroon po talagang sindikato (There really is a syndicate),” he added.

Sarmiento said the fake receipts’ control numbers were sourced from different parts of the country under what he called the “sharing scheme.”

“Someone recruited them to distribute the face receipts to OFWs, and out of the P2,400 (paid by workers), P900 would go to the marketer making the fake receipts. The liaison officer(s), they receive P1,500. We know who they are and we know more or less their structure,” he said.

When he brought up the fraudulent scheme to PhilHealth management, Sarmiento claimed he and his boss were removed from their posts.

“After 3 to 4 years of fact-finding, no report was filed to the (PhilHealth) Ad Hoc Committee, nobody went to prison or was caught, no action on 16 affidavit complaints too. The only thing they acted on was to persecute us both. My boss and I were removed from our positions,” he said.

But PhilHealth senior vice president Dennis Mas clarified that Sarmiento and his superior were merely reassigned.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel III said Gierran can bring reform to PhilHealth.

Pimentel, who authored the NBI Reorganization and Modernization Law, pointed out that Gierran effectively implemented the law when he was NBI director from 2016 to 2020.

During his watch, the NBI did not figure in any controversy, Pimentel said. Nor, he added, has his long record in government been tainted by allegations of corruption.

Hontiveros also expressed hope that Gierran would be able to put an end to the “seasonal controversy” plaguing PhilHealth, and said his success in doing so would restore the public’s faith in the state insurance firm.

“We must hope that he really gets to the bottom of the seasonal problems in PhilHealth and dismantle once and for all whatever mafia is operating there,” she said in a mix of English and Filipino.

“I give Attorney Gierran the benefit of the doubt… [that] he is qualified, given his experience in management as an NBI director and in finance as a CPA-lawyer,” Hontiveros said.

He still has to prove, however, if he is the right man for the job, she added.

It was during Gierran’s term when the NBI filed criminal complaints against 21 PhilHealth officials and employees in connection with the alleged misuse of funds on “ghost” dialysis treatments.

PhilHealth has been embroiled in fresh allegations of corruption after a sitting board member and a resigned anti-fraud officer claimed that a so-called mafia in PhilHealth has allegedly been orchestrating large-scale corruption within the corporation for years.

Also on Wednesday, the Palace said President Rodrigo Duterte would rely on the findings of Task Force PhilHealth about allegations of unabated and widespread corruption in the state-run insurer.

“For now, the President would defer to the findings of the task force,” Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in an interview with CNN Philippines. “The President will have to await the formal findings of his own task force.”

Roque made the statement after the Senate Committee of the Whole recommended on Tuesday the filing of criminal charges against embattled Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, resigned PhilHealth chief Ricardo Morales, and several former and incumbent PhilHealth officials over the supposedly “improper and illegal implementation” of the interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM).

The Senate committee said Duque, Morales, and some senior vice presidents of PhilHealth should be slapped with criminal and administrative cases for their alleged involvement in the “shady” implementation of the IRM.

The IRM is an advanced payment program that allows PhilHealth to give health care institutions cash in advance to respond to unanticipated events, such as natural disasters and calamities.

Roque said the Senate’s recommendation is “always welcome.”

He said, however, that Task Force PhilHealth would come up with better recommendations than the ones made by the Senate.

“You would expect that the evaluation of evidence and appreciation of evidence would be, should I say, far more in-depth than the Senate investigation. That’s why we are awaiting the findings of the task force,” Roque said.

The task force, created by Duterte on Aug. 7 and led by the Department of Justice, was directed to investigate the supposed rampant corruption in PhilHealth.

Other members of the task force are the Office of the Ombudsman, Commission on Audit, Civil Service Commission, the Office of the Executive Secretary, the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, and the Office of the Special Assistant to the President.

Roque expressed confidence that the task force would consider the Senate’s recommendations.

“I think the task force itself will evaluate the findings of the Senate. I’m almost sure that the Senate has transmitted all the evidence it has gathered in the course of its investigation. Whether or not the task force will agree with the conclusion, I leave it to the task force,” he said.

Roque said he was also optimistic that it would ensure that individuals behind the widespread corruption in PhilHealth would be held accountable for their acts.

The task force, he said, only has until Sept. 14 to finish the investigation on PhilHealth.

“I think within the month of September, the President would like to see their findings,” Roque said.

In related developments:

* The Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) rallied behind the findings of the Senate Committee of the Whole that highlighted corruption by PhilHealth executives and Duque’s accountability, since he was the DOH secretary and chairman of PhilHealth since 2001.

* The House of Representatives’ joint panel investigating the alleged irregularities at PhilHealth on Wednesday moved to cite in contempt a Koronadal-based neurologist for accusing a lawmaker of false claims against him during the hearing. The panel approved the motion of House Minority Leader Benny Abante Jr. to cite in contempt Dr. Mark Dennis Menguita after he claimed that Magsasaka party-list Rep. Argel Cabatbat lied before Congress when the lawmaker accused the doctor of paying recruiters to invite PhilHealth members to avail of his wellness program free of charge provided they had to sleep over at a hospital. Rep. Michael Defensor, chair of the House committee on public accounts, any resource person shall not be allowed to disrespect any legislator. With PNA

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