Red Cross should resume Covid-19 tests after PRRD assurance

FILE: A Philippine Coast Guard personnel gets specimen samples from one of the 400 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) during a swab test shortly upon the OFWs’ arrival via Qatar Airways flight QR3150. (PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)

MANILA – Malacañang on Wednesday said the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) should resume its coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) testing services after President Rodrigo Duterte gave his assurance that the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will settle its PHP931-million debt.

In an interview over CNN Philippines, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the government will pay 50 percent of the overdue balance incurred by PhilHealth for testing services to the PRC within this week or next week.

“The President has committed to pay. I don’t think there’s any reason for the Red Cross to doubt that the President is committed to paying. And because of this, I believe that testing should continue because the Red Cross has been assured that they will be paid,” Roque said.

Roque said the partial payment would be “substantial”, considering that the humanitarian organization could not continue functioning unless it has its cash requirements.

“And that’s why we give utmost priority to settling at least 50 percent. Because it is to the interest of both Red Cross and the country that we continue our PCR testing since the Red Cross is responsible for 25 percent of all our testings,” he said.

In his weekly Talk to the Nation on Monday, Duterte said the government is currently working on a solution to pay PhilHealth’s accumulated debt of PHP931 million to PRC.

Duterte’s statement comes after the PRC last week stopped conducting tests that are being charged to the PhilHealth.

“Itong Red Cross, huwag ka mag-alala mabayaran ‘to (This Red Cross, don’t worry we’ll pay the debt). They’re just looking for a way to present the solution sa (in) [the Commission on Audit] pati sa Budget. Do not worry, we will pay. It will take time, but we will pay,” Duterte said.

Duterte said he will look for sources to settle the state insurer’s outstanding balance so that the PRC can resume the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) tests.

The PRC has been receiving samples of returning overseas Filipino workers, those arriving in airports and seaports, those in mega swabbing facilities, and front-line health and government workers.

Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III said at least 4,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were stranded after the PRC stopped conducting the Covid-19 tests for the government due to PhilHealth’s unpaid balance.

Bello said the OFW-returnees have been stranded in hotels in Metro Manila as they wait for their swab tests and results before they will be transported by the government to their respective provinces.

“Right now, we are talking of at least 4,000 plus OFWs now stranded in Metro Manila,” Bello said in a virtual Palace press briefing on Tuesday.

A negative swab test result is one of the requirements for the OFWs to be able to go back to their hometowns.

Earlier, PhilHealth President and Chief Executive Officer Dante Gierran said the state insurer will pay its outstanding balance but also pointed out that his team found questionable items in the agency’s existing deal with the non-government organization.

He claimed that the contract between PhilHealth and PRC, which was approved by former PhilHealth chief Ricardo Morales, did not comply with the procurement directives of the Office of the Executive Secretary.