MANILA, Philippines — Six regional vice presidents of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) have heeded the call of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra to temporarily vacate their posts, putting pressure on their superiors to follow suit as the investigation ordered by President Duterte into the corruption scandal hounding the state-run company gathers momentum.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said PhilHealth officials being probed for alleged corruption, particularly members of the executive committee who were named in congressional investigations, should follow the example of the regional vice presidents and go on leave.
Guevarra heads the interagency task force that is not only investigating the alleged irregularities involving top PhilHealth officials but will also recommend institutional reforms in the agency created to provide health insurance for all Filipinos.
The decision of the regional vice presidents came as senators called for holding accountable the PhilHealth board on issues surrounding the P30-billion interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM), a special financial aid for hospitals treating COVID-19 patients.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who is board chair, has remained silent on allegations of massive corruption and fraud in PhilHealth. He is expected to appear on Tuesday before the Senate committee of the whole, which is looking into the PhilHealth corruption scandal.
Sen. Ralph Recto noted that the board’s ex-officio members were the secretaries of the Department of Finance, Department of Budget and Management, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and Department of Labor and Employment.
In a letter to PhilHealth Executive Vice President and COO Arnel de Jesus, Paolo Johann Perez (Mimaropa), Valerie Anne Hollero (Western Visayas), Datu Masiding Alonto Jr. (Northern Mindanao), Khaliquzzman Macabato (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao), Dennis Adre and William Chavez said they would relinquish their posts effective Aug. 17.
“This will give the investigation a free hand in finding out those responsible and finally bring them to account,” they told De Jesus in a letter dated Aug. 15, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer on Sunday.
“The ongoing Senate and House of Representatives investigations into [the] graft and corruption [in] PhilHealth demand full cooperation from all its officers and staff. This is necessary to help determine and assign culpability in the most expeditious manner,” they said.
Mafia
They said they had already designated their temporary replacements, save for Adre and Chavez who had been on “floating status” since September 2019, to ensure that the delivery of services in their regions would not be hampered.
The six vice presidents were among those identified by former PhilHealth President and CEO Roy Ferrer as members of a “mafia’’ in the corporation at a Senate hearing last year.
The chamber initiated the probe on the heels of the series of Inquirer investigative reports on the various scams and rackets that had reportedly cost PhilHealth an estimated P154 billion since 2003.
At the Senate hearing on Aug. 11, PhilHealth board member Alejandro Cabading and resigned PhilHealth antifraud legal officer Thorrsson Montes Keith both dismissed insinuations that Perez, Hollero, Alonto, Macabato, Adre and Chavez had a hand in the proliferation of corrupt practices in the insurance corporation.
“From what I understand, these are the people who actually brought [out] the issue of corruption last year that led to the investigation [by] the Senate,” Cabading said in reply to a question by Sen. Risa Hontiveros.
‘Modern-day heroes’
“They were [called] the mafia, but in my definition they are the … modern-day heroes … The information [about corruption] given to me came from them. These are good guys around,” said the PhilHealth board member.
Various corruption plots allegedly hatched by corrupt PhilHealth officials had been uncovered in the first two Senate hearings, including the supposedly overpriced P2.1-billion information technology (IT) project.
The health insurer had temporarily frozen the plan to update its current IT system following allegations by Cabading, Keith and former Marine Col. Etrobal Laborte, who quit as PhilHealth President Ricardo Morales’ head executive assistant, that it was replete with fraud.
Some senators had also taken Morales and other PhilHealth officials to task for promoting some officers who were previously implicated in the “ghost patient” scam involving WellMed Dialysis Center and for their failure to prosecute errant personnel.
In his testimony in the Senate, Keith said some P15 billion was funneled to fraudulent transactions in 2019 alone.
Morales belied the claim but admitted that PhilHealth “potentially lost” P10.2 billion to fraud last year.
Abolish IRM
Sen. Panfilo Lacson brought to light the supposed irregularities in the distribution of IRM.
Morales has denied any outside influence on the release of IRM funds, of which a Davao City hospital got a huge chunk.
The state-run company on Thursday announced that it would temporarily hold the release of IRM.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon called for the abolition of the IRM, saying it did not serve the purpose and only served as cash advances to hospitals and other health facilities.
Even if the IRM is suspended, PhilHealth benefits for COVID-19 cases should continue, he said.
The Philippine Red Cross, meanwhile, will “most likely” suspend its novel coronavirus testing because of PhilHealth’s failure to settle its remaining balances to the PRC’s COVID-19 testing services.
Sen. Richard Gordon, who is also PRC chair, said the group would discontinue testing for those whose payments would be charged to PhilHealth, until the health insurer settled its P700.5-million balance.
“How can we operate if we do not have enough test kits and we do not have money to pay our med techs and other staff?” he said.
The PRC, however, will still accommodate walk-in individuals who will pay for their polymerase chain reaction tests.