MANILA, Philippines — Administrative agencies such as PhilHealth cannot change or modify court decisions such that of the Court of Appeals, an official of the Department of Justice said Wednesday.
Justice Undersecretary Adrian Sugay, during a joint House panel hearing, said court decisions are immutable and can only be changed if there is a correction of clerical errors.
“‘Yung mga decision po ng korte, totoo yun, immutable yan. I think this is the point made by Ombudsman Samuel Martires who used to be a Supreme Court justice. Sabi nga niya the only body who can modify the decision is the court itself,” he said.
This ran contrary to the statement of PhilHealth senior manager Atty. Rogelio Pocallan, who was cited in contempt during a joint panel last week for saying that the state insurer firm can modify the decisions of the court, particularly the Court of Appeals.
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This was in relation to the case of Perpetual Succour Hospital Inc. in Cebu, that the hospital that was earlier found guilty of two counts of extending the confinement period of a patient, in violation of the PhilHealth law.
The original decision of PhilHealth’s Prosecution Department was to suspend Perpetual Succour for three months and to slap it with a fine of P10,000.
The Court of Appeals affirmed the decision. But in a board resolution, the PhilHealth board reversed the suspension and instead ordered the hospital to pay a P100,000 fine.
Sugay said that if an agency wants a decision modified based on exceptions of immutability, the agency should file the proper motion before the court that issued the decision.
“Itong PhilHealth hindi nila pwedeng gawin yun on their own,” he said.
“What they can do, if they are so authorized under the charter or under the law creating PhilHealth is maybe to enter into a compromised agreement with the hospital but of course this is subject sa kanilang charter or the law creating PhilHealth, and subject to appropriate regulations of the Commission on Audit,” the Justice official said.