Sen. Padilla denies cursing PhilHealth chief at Senate session hall

Sen. Robinhood C. Padilla (Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines— Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. allegedly caught the ire of Sen. Robinhood Padilla for being “rude” and “arrogant” during Tuesday’s budget deliberations at the Senate.

Some witnesses saw Padilla approached Ledesma at the session hall and one claimed the senator supposedly cursed him for his rude and arrogant demeanor during the session.

Padilla, however, denied this, saying he only gave Ledesma advice.

READ: Pissed Robin Padilla tells ‘barumbado’ DFA exec: I am a senator, you must respect me

“Hindi po ako nagmumura (I don’t curse),” Padilla told Inquirer.net. “It was an advice.”

Besides he said, he has no right to scold any member of the Cabinet.

“Ako po ay nag advise sa kanya katulad ng ginawa ng mga pahayag ni Senator Win Gatchalian at Majority Floor Leader Senator Francis Tolentino (I advised him, just like the statements made by Senator Win Gatchalian and Majority Floor Leader Senator Francis Tolentino.),” Padilla added.

A witness, however, claimed that Padilla got upset with Ledesma over his rude and arrogant responses during the budget proceeding.

“Napikon lang si Robin. Bastos sumagot si Ledesma, mayabang (Robin just got annoyed. Ledesma answered rudely, acting arrogant.),” one of the sources said.

“P*ta, matuto kang gumalang. Hinatak n’ya,” added the source, quoting Padilla.

Another source also witnessed the incident.

According to the second source, who was also at the session hall, he saw the commotion and heard Padilla raised his voice at the PhilHealth chief.

He could not confirm, however, if Padilla indeed hurled expletives at Ledesma.

At the session hall, Tolentino gave Ledesma a “gentle” reminder to temper his responses “with an iota of humility.”

The Senate suspended its rules to allow Ledesma to directly answer the questions raised about certain issues hounding the PhilHealth.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who was presiding over the session, issued the same reminder to the state health insurer’s chief.

“May I remind the president of PhilHealth, the resource person, to please answer the question with respect and also to temper his voice because Sen. JV (Ejercito) has been fair in his questioning,” Gatchalian said.

“And may I remind the resource person to answer the questions directly without any insinuation of disrespect,” he added.

Following this, Ledesma apologized to the chamber.