PhilHealth board member Alejandro Cabading. Screengrab from the Senate’s online inquiry
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate Committee of the Whole (CoW) will decide on the request for legislative immunity of Alejandro Cabading, member of board directors in Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), and Lawyer Thorsson Keith, former anti-fraud officer of the agency, a senator said on Saturday.
“I think nagpadala sila ng letter request kay SP (Senate President Vicente) Sotto III na humingi sila legislative immunity. Nasabi ko rin kay SP,” Senator Panfilo Lacson told DWIZ when asked if there are threats of legal action against Keith and Cabading.
(I think they sent a letter of request to SP asking for legislative immunity. I already told Sotto.)
To recall, Keith, who resigned over alleged corruption in PhilHealth, revealed at a Senate probe that some members of the “mafia” in the agency reportedly pocketed over P15-billion funds in the agency.
Cabading, meanwhile, backed Keith’s report, saying he flagged the agency’s leadership about the irregularities in a technology project.
Lacson said he will support the request. He added that he owes it to Keith and Cabading for divulging information about the agency during the Senate inquiry.
“When we investigated PhilHealth last year di ba pinagkakasuhan ang RVPs (Regional Vice Presidents) na nag-testify? So I think we owe it to them kasi nag-volunteer sila ng mga dokumento at information, na bigyan naman sila ng certain amount of legal protection ng Senado, ang kanilang ite-testify di pwede gamitin sa kanila in future legal action against them,” he said.
(When we investigated PhilHealth last year, there were cases against RVPs who testified. So I think we owe it to them to be given a certain amount of legal protection of the Senate so that their testimonies will not be used to file legal action against them because they volunteered to give documents and information )
Lacson, nonetheless, said the letters would still be up to the approval of the majority of the members of CoW.