PhilHealth interim chief denies misusing agency’s funds

Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) interim president Celestina Ma. Jude de la Serna on Tuesday assured lawmakers that she was not misusing the agency’s funds.

At the joint oversight committee hearing on the performance of PhilHealth, De la Serna said she did not violate any law amid reports she spent more than half a billion pesos for travel.

“Let me assure you I am here in PhilHealth to protect the people’s money, to ensure that every peso translates into better healthcare our people,” De la Serna said.

READ: Duterte orders probe of PhilHealth OIC for alleged excessive trips

The Commission on Audit (COA) had earlier asked De la Serna to explain her travels amounting to P627,293.04 in just one year despite the agency’s P9 billion income loss.

“I do not allow thievery in public service. This is my commitment to the President and the Filipino people,” she said.

She said she implemented “heart-breaking” decisions such as reshuffling of regional heads and shortening contracts of casual employees to rid the PhilHealth of corruption.

The PhilHealth chief clarified that the report P8 billion gap in the agency’s 2017 report was due to “double accounting entry of P4.1 billion” in one of their regional offices.

COA was checking the account entry, she added.

She said that the PhilHealth has P151 billion in total assets and an investment portfolio of P 120.7 billion as of December 2017.  /je