Corruption within PhilHealth? Morales tells Roque to go to court

MANILA, Philippines – Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque should file cases in court if he has evidence of corruption involving the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), the state health insurer’s chief said Thursday.

PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales issued this pronouncement after Roque said the corporation was losing money allegedly due to corruption. 

Roque also said he had yet to see Morales take action and file charges against crooks in the agency.

“Dun naman sa nawawalang pera na sinasabi ni Atty. Roque. If he has any specific…evidence, he should file the case. He should go to the court. He’s a lawyer, he should file the case and bring the evidence to court,” Morales said in a  Teleradyo interview.

“Kasi ako naman, based on evidence, I will act on what the evidence shows. So far, I have not seen any evidence who are these people, san ba napunta ‘tong perang to. What evidence I had I turned over to the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation] and the PACC [Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission] and they filed the cases,” he added.

Morales was referring to the cases filed against 20 officials and employees of PhilHealth.

“We opened our files, naghatid kami ng mga boxes and boxes of documents to the NBI, and the PACC and because of that they filed cases against 20 PhilHealth executive and employees,” Morales stressed.

“Outstanding pa itong mga kasong ito, which were made possible because we provided information. Now maybe we should ask the NBI and the PACC, ano nangyari sa mga kaso na ‘yon,” he added.

Asked if he had fired erring officials or employees since he was appointed, Morales said he has yet to do so because cases are still pending.

“Wala, but we have outstanding cases. As a matter of fact, yung legal sector namin has about 10,000 cases involving hospitals and medical professionals, various cases, mga ‘upcasing,’ false claims,” explained.

Morales was appointed PhilHealth chief after President Rodrigo Duterte sought the resignation of then PhilHealth chief Roy Ferrer and six board members following the Inquirer’s three-part investigative report on “ghost dialysis” treatments, overpayments and other fraudulent practices, and a “mafia” behind padded claims.

‘Long term solution’

Meanwhile, to resolve the problem regarding fraudulent claims, Morales said PhilHealth is in the process of implementing an information system that would computerize all transactions as a “long term solution.”

“We have about a P2.6 billion budget for that this year. And ini-implement natin yan, pero…na-delay. Minsan yung failure of bid, nagbago yung specification. Madaming issue,” the PhilHealth chief said.

“Anybody who tries to implement an IT system will you know, talagang problematic ang. And one of the reasons kung bakit na-delay, nagpalit ng signatories. Napalitan yung presidente…So challenging yan, challenging yung IT system,” he added.

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