Morales admits ‘systemic’ fraud in PhilHealth can’t be resolved in just one year
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) president and CEO Ricardo Morales admitted that the “systemic” fraud within the agency cannot be solved in one year, or even in years to come.
During Tuesday’s resumption of the Senate investigation into alleged anomalies in PhilHealth, Morales said that fraud “has always been in the system.”
“Fraud has always been in the system as it has always been in all similar health systems in the world,” he said.
“The problem is systemic and cannot be solved in one year, maybe not even in three years,” he added.
The PhilHealth chief also admitted miscalculating the time required to get an IT system up and running, which he earlier touted could address fraud in the agency.
Article continues after this advertisement“One year was not enough and the budget was inadequate for the job. The internal anti-fraud mechanism were inadequate and inappropriate to address the internal weaknesses, the resources necessary for the transformation of an organization of this size and the mission given to it are not found within the organization,” he said.
Article continues after this advertisementMorales also welcomed the attention being placed upon the state-run insurance company.
“PhilHealth welcomes all this attention upon PhilHealth because it may finally give this organization that is meant to directly uplift the lives of all Filipinos the prominence and attention it truly deserve,” he said.
“We must fully appreciate the magnitude of the job confronting us and realize that if we succeed, we will directly uplift the lives of every Filipino, 109 million Filipinos,” he added.
Morales then assured that the agency will continue to cooperate in the different investigations being undertaken by Congress as well as other government agencies.
“From the management, in all humility, we commit hard work, dedication, transparency and full cooperation in this investigation and all agencies so together we can achieve the goals of universal healthcare,” the PhilHealth chief said.
