{"id":262736,"date":"2020-07-24T04:17:01","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T08:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=262736"},"modified":"2020-07-24T04:17:01","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T08:17:01","slug":"prrd-office-probes-philhealth-corruption-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/24\/prrd-office-probes-philhealth-corruption-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD office probes PhilHealth corruption issues"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This developed following reports that three PhilHealth officials resigned from their respective posts because of the supposed widespread corruption within the agency. (File Photo<\/a>: Philippine Health Insurance Corporation\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Corruption issues that continue to hound state insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) have prompted President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s office to launch its own probe, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cPinakinggan po ang lahat at ang naging<\/em>\u00a0conclusion\u00a0ay isang maigting na imbestigasyon ang gagawin<\/em>\u00a0(They listened to all [the complaints] and the conclusion is to conduct a deeper probe [into the supposed irregularities hounding PhilHealth),\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in an interview with GMA-7\u2019s \u201cUnang Hirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

This developed following reports that three PhilHealth officials resigned from their respective posts because of the supposed widespread corruption within the agency.<\/p>\n

Reports said a heated argument during the PhilHealth\u2019s executive committee meeting due to the discovery of alleged corruption within the state-run firm allegedly prompted the three officials to tender their resignations.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Friday, PhilHealth confirmed that head executive assistant Etrobal Laborte resigned in mid-July \u201cto go back to taking his PhD (Doctor of Philosophy).\u201d<\/p>\n

PhilHealth, meanwhile, said it has yet to officially receive the resignation letter of Thorsson Montes Keith, anti-legal fraud officer of the agency.<\/p>\n

It added that corporate legal counsel Roberto Labe Jr. \u201cvehemently denied\u201d reports about his supposed resignation.<\/p>\n

Roque confirmed that he had received a copy of Keith\u2019s resignation letter, which cites the \u201cwidespread corruption in PhilHealth\u201d as among the PhilHealth official\u2019s reasons to quit his post.<\/p>\n

Roque encouraged Keith to cooperate with Duterte\u2019s office by substantiating claims about the supposedly rampant corruption within PhilHealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cNananawagan ako sa kanya, ngayong mayroon ng pormal na imbestigasyon, sana makipagtulungan na lang siya, bagama\u2019t siya po ay nag<\/em>-resign\u00a0na, para matigil na<\/em>\u00a0once and for all\u00a0ang<\/em>\u00a0corruption\u00a0diyan sa<\/em>\u00a0PhilHealth (Now that there is a formal investigation, I am encouraging him to cooperate to once and for all stop the corruption in PhilHealth),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque has repeatedly expressed disappointment over the alleged failure of PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Ricardo Morales to address the supposed irregularities plaguing the state insurer.<\/p>\n

The Palace official, in his latest remarks, believed that some of PhilHealth\u2019s top officials are involved in corrupt activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng aking\u00a0<\/em>conclusion\u00a0diyan talaga, may sindikato talaga at ito po iyong pinakamatataas na<\/em>\u00a0career executives\u00a0diyan sa<\/em>\u00a0PhilHealth.\u00a0Hindi naman po lahat, hindi natin nilalahat<\/em>\u00a0(My conclusion there is there is really a syndicate there and top career executives of PhilHeath are part of it. But I\u2019m not saying that all of them are involved),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

PhilHealth ensured that it would look into the corruption allegations hurled against the agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhilHealth assures the public that it takes seriously any issue on corruption and asks Atty. Keith to substantiate his accusations so proper procedure can be initiated,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Corruption issues that continue to hound state insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) have prompted President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s office …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":204928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-262736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262736"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262738,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262736\/revisions\/262738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}