PRRD to use last 2 years in going after corrupt PhilHealth execs

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte talks to the people after holding a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members at the Matina Enclaves in Davao City on August 24, 2020. ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday promised to use his remaining years in office in cleaning the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) which has been persistently hounded by corruption allegations.

In a taped public address aired on state-run PTV-4 Tuesday morning, Duterte said he would make sure that erring PhilHealth personnel would be slapped with appropriate charges before he steps down from office in 2022.

“One of the few things that I can do in the remaining two years of my term, uubusin ko ito ‘yung panahon ko (I will use my remaining years) to work on the cases for people who are involved in the (widespread corruption within) PhilHealth,” he said.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, serving as chair of the task force investigating PhilHealth, told Duterte that the results of the initial investigation found that the legal department of the corrupt-ridden state corporation is “one of the biggest sources of fraudulent activities”.

Guevarra, who was with Duterte in Davao City on Monday night, also noted that the Office of the Ombudsman had already ordered the preventive suspension of 13 PhilHealth officials even prior to the creation of the task force.

On August 7, Duterte ordered Guevarra to lead the task force mandated to conduct an investigation into the supposedly widespread corruption within PhilHealth.

The task force has been given 30 days to conclude its investigation and submit its findings and recommendations to Duterte’s office.

Duterte vowed to punish PhilHealth personnel who are involved in illicit activities.

“‘Yung PhilHealth ang dapat imbestigahan at dapat i-prosecute lahat at dapat ikulong. Kung iyan na lang ang trabaho ko na maiwan dalawang taon, iyan na rin ang gagawain ko (Corrupt PhilHealth personnel should be investigated and prosecuted and jailed. If that would be my only job in my last two years, I will make sure it will happen),” he said.

To ensure transparency in PhilHealth’s transactions, Duterte said he would also mandate the state insurer to publish in newspapers all its future activities.

“That is in view of the ‘yung sama ng loob ng tao itong sa PhilHealth na ito (That is in the view of the people’s gripe against PhilHealth),” Duterte said. “So I hope that I have made myself clear on this. More measures will come.”

On August 19, Marikina City Rep. Stella Quimbo filed House Bill (HB) 7429 or the proposed Social Health Insurance Crisis Act, which allows the President to revamp the PhilHealth’s executive leadership by privatizing any or all segments of the agency, if necessary, to make it more effective to address the social health crisis.

Under HB 7429, the President has the authority to abolish or create offices, transfer functions, institute drastic cost-cutting, and take other measures to reorganize PhilHealth.

However, Malacañang on August 20 thumbed down the proposal, stressing that the proposed privatization of PhilHealth would defeat the agency’s purpose of providing affordable and accessible health care services to needy Filipinos.