Lacson presses illegal PhilHealth disbursements

MANILA, Philippines — Simply liquidating its fund releases does not automatically mean the transactions of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) were legal and aboveboard, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Wednesday.

“Liquidation is different from audit,” the senator said as he cast doubt on PhilHealth’s claims of regularity after its executives reported liquidating the bulk of the P15-billion fund allegedly lost to corruption through the controversial interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM).

“Say, if public funds were spent not for Covid-19 as required under the IRM, but for dialysis centers and infirmaries, which are clearly not authorized, it can still be declared as liquidated, but it doesn’t mean that funds were legally disbursed,” he said in a statement.

“That is why, as we already know, some former and current PhilHealth officials have recently been charged by the DOJ (Department of Justice)-led task force,” Lacson said.

IRM is an emergency program that releases cash advan­ces to hospitals during natural disasters and other unexpected events, including the Covid-19 pandemic. Congressional inquiries had found that hospitals could use the cash advances released to them under the IRM like a “blank check” or for other uses, including for supplies and salaries, instead of treatment for Covid-19 patients.

On Tuesday, PhilHealth President Dante Gierran said the state health insurer had liquidated about 92 percent of the P15 billion in funds that had allegedly been pocketed by its officials through fraudulent schemes.

“Truth be told, that amount is not lost; it is just there,” he said.

“On record, the Senate and the [House] ordered that it be liquidated. As of now, 92 percent has been liquidated,” Gierran told a Palace press briefing, adding that only a small portion had yet to be accounted for.

In August last year, Thorrsson Montes Keith, former PhilHealth antifraud legal officer, said P15 billion of the funds had been funneled to the pockets of a “syndicate” composed of members of PhilHealth’s executive committee.