PhilHealth inquiry may catch more ‘big fish’

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra. (File photo by Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — More “big fish” may be included in the next batch of cases that a task force formed by President Duterte will file in connection with the multibillion-peso corruption scandal in Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told the Senate on Monday.

Guevarra made the remarks a day after Sen. Panfilo Lacson claimed that the task force, led by the Department of Justice (DOJ), had already obtained “enough evidence” to pursue criminal and administrative charges against Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.

“We have just begun, and we’re still uncovering and gathering more evidence. So who knows if in the future some other big fish may be caught,” Guevarra said at the deliberations in the Senate of the DOJ’s budget request of P22.6 billion for 2021.

Duque, who serves as chair of the state health insurer, was left out as respondent in the case that the National Bureau of Investigation brought in the Office of the Ombudsman last week.

Resigned PhilHealth senior vice president Rodolfo del Rosario Jr., who had admitted that the release of P14.9 billion in interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM) funds to hospitals and other health-care facilities was illegal, was also excluded from the complaint.

“We will continue what we have started. Many other names will come out in the next few days,” Guevarra said, adding that the NBI would file a supplemental complaint with the graft buster within the week.

Asked by Sen. Sonny Angara, who presided over the budget hearing, if the task force was “not ruling out” the possibility of filing cases against other senior public officials, Guevarra answered in the affirmative.

“That’s a possibility … We’re not foreclosing the possibility that some other important people may [be charged],” Guevarra said.

Sought for clarification if Duque was among the “big fish,” Guevarra said he was “not referring to anyone in particular.”

“I just wanted to emphasize that anyone in PhilHealth, regardless of [their] position, or any medical professional/private health-care provider, could be charged [in] the Ombudsman or the DOJ,” he said in a Viber message to the Inquirer.

He said the case that the NBI filed against resigned PhilHealth president and CEO Ricardo Morales and eight of his subordinates was just the start of the government’s efforts to exact accountability against those behind the alleged massive fraud that had put PhilHealth in the red.

The first complaint, he noted, centered on the allegedly irregular distribution of IRM funds, which the state-run insurance firm specifically allotted for hospitals treating COVID-19 patients.

The NBI said it found enough evidence to conclude that errant PhilHealth officials colluded in releasing P2.7 billion in IRM funds to 139 hospitals and health facilities, including maternity clinics and dialysis centers, in Metro Manila.

Lacson, who joined Senate President Vicente Sotto III in initiating the Senate hearing into the fraudulent transactions in PhilHealth, had earlier disclosed that many of these facilities did not have even a single COVID-19 case.

According to Guevarra, the task force would now focus on the alleged overpricing in PhilHealth’s botched P2.1-billion information technology project and issues involving its legal sector.

He said the body would likewise look into previous corruption allegations that were not properly investigated by PhilHealth and other investigative bodies.

“We are probing these areas more deeply so that we can gather sufficient evidence to back up a proper complaint with the Ombudsman,” Guevarra said.

“We will just prioritize the current and major issues before we go back to past incidents of corruption and fraud in PhilHealth that were not given proper attention,” he added.

Deeper probe

In a separate talk with reporters on Monday, Guevarra acknowledged Lacson’s claim that the Senate had gathered enough evidence to bring charges against Duque and Del Rosario.

“We will be glad to discuss these pieces of evidence with Senators Sotto and Lacson,” he said.

“As we continue to probe more deeply into the fraud centers in the state health insurer and build up cases, more names may be included and more complaints will be filed in the coming days,” he added.

In a phone interview on Sunday night, Duque described as the “height of injustice, oppression and persecution” Lacson’s insistence on bringing charges against him for the alleged irregularities in PhilHealth.

Duque reiterated that he was not present when PhilHealth officials signed a resolution authorizing the release of IRM funds to hospitals even if these were not handling COVID-19 cases.

“I had nothing to do with the resolution approving the IRM because I was absent for almost four months from the PhilHealth board meetings. You can see in the resolution that I had no signature there,” he said.

Explaining his absence from the meetings, Duque said he was busy responding to the COVID-19 crisis as health secretary and as head of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the temporary government body overseeing the Duterte administration’s coronavirus response.

“It’s not right for them to prosecute me. It would be right if I did not do anything,” he said.

Duque said he could not do anything if the Senate would bring charges against him.

“But that will have no basis,” he said. “I will defend myself [in] the courts. I will do everything to clear my name.”

—With reports from Dona Z. Pazzibugan and Tina G. Santos