Philhealth chief must ‘credibly refute’ corruption allegations or resign — Lacson

MANILA, Philippines — There is no other way but for Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) president Ricardo Morales to resign if he cannot refute allegations of corruption within the agency, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Sunday.

“Unless ma-refute niya ito credibly, itong mga allegation dito na sabi ko nga may documents, walang ibang mapuntahan kundi mag-resign kung totoo lahat itong allegation,” Lacson said in an interview over dzBB.

(Unless he credibly refutes the allegations that have documents, there’s no other way but for him to resign if all these allegations are true.)

“Pero kung ma-refute niya ito sa pamamagitan ng dokumento o issuances na official din at mabe-break niya ang credibility nitong documents na hawak namin sa ngayon, pwedeng sabihin natin na naninira lang ang itong mga tao,” Lacson said.

(But if he is able to refute these allegations with official documents and issuances, and break the credibility of these documents we got a hold of, then we can say that there are people who just want to slander his name.)

Lacson said a Senate resolution will be filed Monday seeking probe into the alleged irregularities within PhilHealth.

The Senate resolution will focus on three “major issues” within PhilHealth—the implementation of the interim reimbursement mechanism, the information and communication technology equipment worth P734 million flagged by the Commission on Audit, and the alleged manipulation of its “financial status.”

PhilHealth said it has “nothing to hide” and that it is ready to respond to the corruption allegations linked to the agency.

JE