MANILA, Philippines — The recommendation by a Senate panel to file complaints in relation to corruption allegations hounding the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is not confined to the top officials of the state insurance firm, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Saturday.
This after the Senate Committee of the Whole recommended the filing of charges against Health Secretary and PhilHealth chairman of the board Francisco Duque III, resigned PhilHealth chief Ricardo Morales, as well as other high-ranking officials of the agency over the alleged misuse of funds.
“Ako’y umaasa sa sinabi ni President [Rodrigo] Duterte…. na lahat ng involved pakakasuhan niya. Kaya nga dun sa committee report at sa recommendation namin, it doesn’t confine the recommendations to the top eight officials. Hindi. Kaya may blanket dun na statement, all other officials and employees that are connived or involved … participated in the releases,” Sotto said over radio station DWIZ.
(I am trusting the President’s word that all involved officials will face charges. That is why in our committee report and recommendations, it doesn’t confine to the top eight officials. There is a blanket statement there that all other officials and employees that are connived or involved… participated in the releases.)
He added that it is up to the Department of Justice to check the involvement of other officials in the PhilHealth fund mess.
“In other words nasa kamay ng DOJ kung alin pa o kung sino ang involved dito,” Sotto said.
Sotto also said he expects that the Senate’s committee report on the PhilHealth irregularities will be adopted by Monday, Sept. 7.
On Tuesday, Sotto sponsored the Senate panel report, saying the committee is recommending the filing of malversation, and graft and corruption charges against Duque, Morales, resigned PhilHealth executive vice president and COO Arnel de Jesus, PhilHealth senior vice president (SVP) for fund management sector Renato Limsiaco, PhilHealth SVP for health financial policy sector Israel Francis Pargas, and other officials involved in the alleged “improper” and “illegal” implementation of the Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM).
He said charges should be filed against the officials for “grave abuse of discretion or gross negligence in ascertaining the IRM beneficiary without valid criteria for distribution.”
In one of the hearings on the PhilHealth scam, Senator Panfilo Lacson revealed that the agency supposedly favored some hospitals in the distribution of the IRM which is an emergency cash aid for hospitals that are responding to calamities.