Sotto insists on raps vs Duque over PhilHealth graft

MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Wednesday insisted that criminal charges should be filed against Health Secretary Francisco Duque III over the corruption scandal in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) and that he should be replaced with someone “who has a stronger will to fight corruption within his organization and the agencies under his or her watch.”

“If I were [Duque], I will get a good lawyer,” Sotto said during the interpellation of the Senate committee of the whole’s report on the investigation of the PhilHealth scandal.

“We are talking here of P14 billion in [public funds]. It’s impossible that the secretary of health did not know about this,” he said, referring to the total amount of Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) that the state insurer distributed to medical facilities from March 25 to June 9.

“What we have is not just circumstantial [evidence]. It’s obvious that he knows what’s happening. He should not say that he does not know anything because [he’s] actually pleading guilty… through abandonment or negligence [of duty],” Sotto argued.

“Since March, PhilHealth released P14 billion and [Duque] is chairman of the board… (who) leads the direction and the agenda of the board. So he cannot feign ignorance,” he said.

But Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who initiated the hearings along with Sotto, and Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee, doubted that there was enough evidence to merit the filing of charges.

The two senators said there was no conclusive evidence to show that Duque was involved in the illegal implementation of the IRM nor in the procurement of overpriced IT equipment.