MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who was accused of being the “godfather” of the so-called mafia within the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) that supposedly defrauded the state insurance firm of billions of pesos, on Thursday vowed not to put to waste the people’s hard-earned money, saying Filipinos “deserve honest and quality service.”
“I understand that recent events may have cast a shadow of doubt or fear in some. But I would like to underscore that as the leader of the people, there is absolutely zero tolerance to any form of fraud or corruption. We will not put the trust nor the hard-earned money of the people to waste,” Doque said in an online media forum with local government officials.
“We ramp our tenfold to continuously protect the health of every single constituent and protect them from undue financial burden. The Filipino people deserve honest and quality service and that is exactly what we have delivered and will continue to deliver,” he added.
Former PhilHealth anti-fraud legal officer Thorrsson Montes Keith said Duque’s influence was evident even in the crafting of the controversial interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM), a P30-billion financial package intended for hospitals treating COVID-19 patients.
During a recent Senate inquiry, Keith said he can consider Duque — who sits as chairperson on the PhilHealth board in concurrent capacity being the DOH Secretary — as the “godfather of the PhilHealth mafia.”
Duque, during the same hearing, however, denied that PhilHealth lost P154 billion due to various forms of fraud over the previous years.
Keith likewise accused PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales of being the “coddler” or “new leader” of the corruption syndicate, which he claimed was composed of the entire PhilHealth executive committee.
President Duterte recently ordered the creation of an inter-agency task force to probe PhilHealth officials over corruption claims which were unearthed during a Senate inquiry.
Among allegations of corruption raised involve the procurement of alleged overpriced IT equipment; a supposedly questionable release of funds under the corporation’s Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM); and the alleged manipulation of the corporation’s financial status.