{"id":267612,"date":"2020-09-03T23:25:04","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T03:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=267612"},"modified":"2020-09-03T23:25:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T03:25:04","slug":"prrd-has-powers-needed-to-address-philhealth-mess-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/03\/prrd-has-powers-needed-to-address-philhealth-mess-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD has powers needed to address PhilHealth mess: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: 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 Malago Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang on August 31, 2020. KING RODRIGUEZ\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has the powers he needed to address the country\u2019s problems, including the alleged massive corruption in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), Malaca\u00f1ang said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this comment after Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Michael Defensor said the Committee on Public Accounts, which he chairs, and the Committee on Good Government have started looking into the possibility of granting emergency powers to Duterte to fix the PhilHealth mess.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that beyond theory that the President has the powers that he needs to address the problems of the nation.\u00a0Pero nagpapasalamat po kami sa suportang pinapakita siyempre ng mga supporters at kaalyado ng Presidente<\/em>\u00a0(But we are thankful for the support being shown by his supporters and allies),\u201d he said in a virtual Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

Roque, a former congressman, refused to comment any further saying he has yet to read the proposal himself.<\/p>\n

He said it is best to wait for the nature, scope, and effectivity of such emergency powers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we welcome the willingness of the House of Representatives to give such emergency powers to the President\u00a0pero hindi po ako maka-komento kasi di ko pa nakikita kung ano talaga yung rekomendasyon<\/em>\u00a0(but I can\u2019t comment because I haven\u2019t seen the recommendation),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He, however, said the proposal is welcome if it is really necessary to make reforms within the state insurer after its officials were accused of siphoning its funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cNais ko po muna makita kung ano ang<\/em>\u00a0specific emergency powers\u00a0na gusto ibigay po ng Kamara at \u2018yan naman po ay most welcome kung talaga pong kinakailangan<\/em>\u00a0(I want to know the specific emergency powers that the Congress wants to five and that will be most welcome if it\u2019s really necessary),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Asked if the proposal was constitutional, Roque emphasized that the Congress has the power to grant emergency powers to the President.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn so far as the power of Congress is concerned, they have the power to grant emergency powers\u00a0pero hindi ko pa po alam kung anong detalye<\/em>\u00a0(but I don\u2019t know the details) so I cannot give a professional opinion on its constitutionality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If it were up to him, Roque said he would even have the PhilHealth replaced by the National Health Service as he proposed in the initial version of the Universal Healthcare bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cYung aking bersyon ng<\/em>\u00a0Universal Healthcare\u00a0binuwag ko po \u2018yan at nais ko sana palitan ng<\/em>\u00a0National Health Service.\u00a0Kasi nga kapag binuwag po, puwede mo tanggalin lahat ng tao diyan<\/em>\u00a0(In my version of the Universal Healthcare, I abolished it and wanted to replace it with the National Health Service. Because if you abolish it, you can remove all the people there),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gierran\u2019s appointment paper<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Monday, Duterte named Gierran PhilHealth chief and ordered him to implement a reshuffling within the corrupt-ridden state insurer.<\/p>\n

Roque confirmed the existence of the appointment paper of Gierran who has yet to receive a copy of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe he has because no less than the President announced it.\u00a0Kung hindi nakakarating sa kanya siguro time lag lang \u2018yan<\/em>\u00a0(If it hasn\u2019t reached him yet, perhaps it\u2019s just a time lag),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the Palace will leave it to the appointees to release their own appointment papers.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Roque said Duterte would rely on the findings of Task Force PhilHealth including on the allegations that Health Secretary Francisco Duque III is “godfather” of the so-called PhilHealth mafia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President will respect the findings of his own task force because it is composed of individuals not only with the required qualification to determine capability but also the power precisely to determine this kind of capability\u00a0dahil kasama po diyan ang<\/em>\u00a0Ombudsman\u00a0at saka ang<\/em>\u00a0Civil Service Commission (because it includes the Ombudsman and Civil Service Commission),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has the powers he needed to address the country\u2019s problems, including the alleged massive corruption in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":267614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267612","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=267612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267615,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267612\/revisions\/267615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}