‘Dante’s Inferno’? Lacson hopes Gierran ‘won’t go through hell in PhilHell’

MANILA, Philippines — “I hope he won’t go through hell in [PhilHell],” Sen. Panfilo Lacson following the appointment of former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Dante Gierran at the helm of the embattled Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

“Dante Gierran will head PhilHealth,” Lacson said on Twitter late Monday. “He is a good man. I hope and I mean it — that PhilHealth will not be Dante’s Inferno.”

Asked if he welcomed the appointment of Gierran as the new PhilHealth chief, Lacson told INQUIRER.net in a message: “Not necessarily. It’s more out of pity.”

“That’s why I said I hope he won’t go through hell in PhilHell,” he added, speaking partly in Filipino.

Gierran will replace Ricardo Morales, who resigned last week as PhilHealth president and CEO after President Rodrigo Duterte said it would be “best” for him to step down due to his health.

Morales’s resignation came at the height of separate investigations over alleged anomalies within the state insurer.

The Senate Committee of the Whole, which conducted three hearings into fresh allegations of corruption within PhilHealth, is set to release its findings on Tuesday.

Among allegations of corruption raised during the hearings 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 records.

Aside from the Senate probe, PhilHealth is also facing separate corruption investigations by the House of Representatives, the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, and a task force created by the President and led by the Department of Justice.

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