Graft raps filed vs PhilHealth execs over alleged fake premium receipts

MANILA, Philippines — A former employee of Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has filed a graft complaint against former and current PhilHealth officials for their alleged inaction on a scam involving the issuance of fake premium receipts to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Complainant Ken Sarmiento, represented by lawyer Harry Roque, filed the complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman on Wednesday.

In a copy of the complaint posted on Roque’s Facebook account on Wednesday, Sarmiento also accused PhilHealth officials of dereliction of duty and grave misconduct and gross neglect of duty.

https://www.facebook.com/320370261490812/posts/1126153047579192/?d=n

Respondents in the complaint are the following:

-Dennis Mas (former Regional Vice President for PhilHealth NCR)

-Ruben Basa (former Chief Operating Officer of PhilHealth)

-Narisa Sugay (then-PhilHealth Vice President for Member Management Group)

-Gilda Diaz (Vice President, PhilHealth Office of the Actuary).

According to Sarmiento’s complaint, he has flagged officials of PhilHealth of hundreds of fake PhilHealth official receipts received from September 2015 until September 2018. At the time, Sarmiento was deployed at PhilHealth operations office in the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA).

He said he has filed 15 complaints before the Anti-Fraud Division of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and submitted another six complaints before the ad hoc committee created by PhilHealth.

Aside from that, Sarmiento also gathered six case folders of hiring agencies containing falsified official receipts.

He claimed that officials did not act on the complaints as this was “systematically suppressed by several high-ranking officers” of PhilHealth Head Office.

Edited by EDV