Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri. (File photo from his office)
MANILA, Philippines — “Ang masasabi ko lang [What I can say is that], there is a special place in hell for people who take advantage of the misery of others.”
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri made this remark on Tuesday as he expressed support for the investigation on the alleged corruption in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), that prompted its anti-fraud legal officer to resign.
“I fully support this investigation towards an overhauling of the system in PhilHealth and to prosecute those who are guilty of corruption,” the senator said in a statement.
Zubiri said he is “saddened and frustrated” like the others on the alleged corruption within the government’s health insurance system, lamenting that poor Filipinos need such service as they struggle to pay their hospital bills.
“Ang mahihirap nating mga kababayan ay hindi minsan nakakaramdam ng inyong (PhilHealth) benepisyo dahil konti lang ang nababayaran ng PhilHealth at nagkakaroon pa ng malaking balanse sa kanilang billing at utang sa hospital,” said Zubiri.
(Our poor countrymen sometimes do not feel the benefits you provide because PhilHealth only shoulders a meager amount of their bills. Sometimes they also encounter a huge balance in their bills at hospitals.)
“Tapos naririnig namin dito na mayroong iilang sindikato dyan sa PhilHealth na kumikita ng bilyon-bilyong piso dahil sa mga irregular at illegal schemes na ito,” the lawmaker added.
(And then we will be hearing something that there are syndicates in PhilHealth that are earning billions of pesos because of these irregular and illegal schemes.)
The Senate, constituted as the committee of the whole, opened on Tuesday an investigation into the alleged widespread corruption in PhilHealth.
The investigation materialized following the recent controversial meeting of PhilHealth officials and some members of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Cabinet, which was reported to have escalated into a heated exchange over the agency’s allegedly overpriced information technology system.