Archbishop of Manila backed out of hospital ops since 1998 to 2008 – Pabillo

MANILA, Philippines — Day-to-day operations of the Cardinal Santos Medical Center has not been managed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila (RCAM) since 1998, the office said Wednesday.

In a statement released by Bishop Broderick Pabillo, the RCAM said that even though it is the registered owner of the property where the hospital is located, it has tapped a third party, the Hospital Managers Inc. (HMI), to mandate and operate the hospital. Pabillo is the auxiliary bishop of Manila.

This was for a period of 10 years or until 2008.

“Thus, in that period, RCAM was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the hospital, and hence was not involved in any transactions with PhilHealth,” the RCAM said.

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Lawmakers earlier threatened to recommend the filing of plunder charges against a former official of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), the Archdiocese of Manila, and the hospital it owned over alleged P170 million “missing” funds.

It was earlier revealed that PhilHealth demanded P240 million from Cardinal Santos Medical Center in 2011 because the hospital supposedly “under-deducted” from payment balances of patients.

Instead of refunding the said amount, HMI, which managed the hospital, filed a case against PhilHealth. The case ended in a settlement where HMI merely refunded P70 million to PhilHealth. [ac]