No evidence to warrant filing case vs Duque over PhilHealth anomalies – Lacson

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate has seen no evidence so far to justify the filing of complaints against Health Secretary Francisco Duque III in connection with alleged anomalies in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Friday.

“If we base it on what we gathered in Senate, I can say we don’t have evidence,” Lacson said in Filipino when asked about the matter in an interview with AM radio station DWIZ. “But the investigation is not over The task force has just started.”

As head of the Department of Health, Duque sits as the ex officio chair of PhilHealth, some of whose officials have been accused of being part of a “mafia” milking the state health insurance agency of billions of pesos.

The Senate Committee of the Whole, which has been leading the probe into the alleged anomalies, did not see any involvement of the PhilHealth, Lacson said.

“The COW [Committee of the Whole] has not seen if Secretary Duque has any culpability because the members of the PhilHealth board were not implicated in the anomalies,” he said.

Lacson hopes that the Department of Justice, led by Secretary Menardo Guevarra, will be diligent in investigating the alleged fraudulent schemes in the agency.

“I believe in Secretary Guevarra that, honest to goodness, he wants to get to the bottom of all these issues,” Lacson said. “And he’s intent on coordinating [with senators]. He requested if we could share with him all evidence collected — the documents and testimonies in the Senate. If he’s not serious, he will not ask for our records.”

[atm]