‘We’re the good mafia, execom is the bad mafia,’ says PhilHealth exec from Mindanao group 

MANILA, Philippines — “We are the good mafia.”

Such was the declaration of a regional vice president of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) who was among the eight officials tagged during a Senate inquiry last year as part of the alleged “Mindanao group” that led a “mafia” which has “control of all influence” within the agency.

During the Senate’s third hearing into the allegations of corruption in PhilHealth on Tuesday, Regional Vice President Dennis Adre also accused the PhilHealth Senior Vice President for the Legal Sector, Rodolfo del Rosario, of “consistently lying in both houses of Congress.”

“In the previous Senate hearings, Board member Alejandro Cabading and [resigned anti-fraud officer] Atty. [Thorrsson Montes] Keith categorically stated that the execom (executive committee) is operating as a mafia, I support their allegations,” Adre said.

Del Rosario is part of PhilHealth’s current execom.

“In the past week, we have witnessed the frenzied justification and connivance of the execom to cover up the anomalies that we have uncovered,” Adre said.

“If we are to be called mafia for questioning flawed policies and illegal orders and exposing irregularities then so be it. But we are the good mafia, and they (execom) are the real and bad mafia,” he added.

Adre, who has been on “floating status” since September 2019, said he and the other regional vice presidents earlier tagged as part of the “Mindanao group” kept their silence “hoping the truth will come out naturally.”

“But SVP Del Rosario has been consistently lying in both houses of Congress and we are deeply bothered that we cannot anymore take the lies he made while under oath,” he added.

During the Senate hearing last August 11, Cabading and Keith claimed the officials previously named by former PhilHealth president Roy Ferrer as part of the “Mindanao group” don’t have the opportunity to steal and are actually the “good guys.”

But Del Rosario, one of the resource persons during the hearing, stood by Ferrer’s claim.

“The people that were named by Doctor Ferrer, they were the ones…when we inventoried cases, there were cases pending against them. There were cases that remained unacted on for the longest time,” Del Rosario had said.

Del Rosario had also previously denied being part of the so-called “mafia” in PhilHealth.

“I deny that I’m a member of any syndicate in this corporation. We have been fighting against corruption and against people who are actually committing grave abuses in this corporation,” Del Rosario earlier told senators.

He then threatened Cabading of “necessary” legal actions should the latter fail to substantiate his allegations.

“Kami nga po ‘yung lumalaban sa sindikato dito (We’re the ones fighting the syndicate here),” Del Rosario added. [ac]