After mayors’ outrage, health execs face lawsuit

Days after at least two Pangasinan mayors expressed outrage at accusations that local government officials are in cahoots with private hospitals to profit from Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) funds, a private eye clinic accused of bogus claims sued PhilHealth officials for libel on Friday.

Eye Center Conglomerate Inc., which operates the Quezon City Eye Center (QCEC), filed the case against PhilHealth president Alexander Padilla and internal auditor Kim Gariando.

QCEC president Raymond Evangelista, through counsel Lorna Kapunan, is seeking P2.5 million each from the PhilHealth officials for damages and attorney’s fees.

A P34-million civil case for damages for abuse of rights and breach of contract was also filed in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court against PhilHealth.

Evangelista said the eye clinic was wrongly accused by Padilla in a May 22 press conference of receiving P150 million in PhilHealth claims and of resorting to illegal means to lure patients.

He said QCEC is a cataract surgery center whose facilities are rented by doctors for scheduled procedures.

“PhilHealth and its officers are misleading the media and the public into thinking that QCEC and those doctors who rent the facilities of QCEC are one and the same, and that QCEC must be blamed and held liable for inappropriate acts of doctors,” the complaint said.

Kapunan said the eye center will also file a disbarment case in the Supreme Court against Padilla and PhilHealth senior manager Jay Villegas for prejudging the investigation and denying payments due to the clinic.

Just days before the case was filed, the mayors of a town and a city in Pangasinan are taking offense at accusations made by a health official alleging that local governments are conniving in an eye care fraud that is draining the coffers of PhilHealth.

In separate statements, Urdaneta City Mayor Amadeo Gregorio Perez IV and Villasis town Mayor Libradita Abrenica protested allegations made at the Senate on July 8 by Minguita Padilla, chair of the Eye Bank Foundation of the Phils., that local officials are among the suspected “sweepers” who entice patients to seek medical care from private hospitals in exchange for kickbacks.

Perez said Padilla’s statement “puts all of us local government officials under a cloud of doubt… [by] confusing referrals with recruitment.”

“Dr. Padilla ought to know that mayors and other local officials make hundreds of referrals every week in response to the needs of our constituents,” said Diaz.