MANILA – Officials of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) stole around P15 billion from the agency using different fraudulent schemes, an incumbent PhilHealth board member claimed.
Thorrsson Montes Keith, former PhilHealth anti-fraud legal officer, revealed before the Senate Committee on the Whole on Tuesday that “mafia members” were in charge of what he calls “crime of the year” due to anomalous transactions.
“Naniniwala po ako na ang perang winaldas at ninakaw ay humigit kumulang P15 billion,” Keith asserted, who earlier resigned from PhilHealth due to “widespread corruption” within the office.
Keith also mentioned PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales of instructing him to talk to Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission Commissioner Greco Belgica to amend a pending case involving the agency’s overpriced COVID-19 testing kits.
“Hindi natatapos ang korapsyon sa PhilHealth at naging kultura na po nito,” he added. “Inutusan ako para hilutin ang kaso sa overpriced test kits.”
Keith also accused Morales of pushing for the endorsement of overpriced IT budget items, amounting to around P750 million.
Morales, who was also present in the Senate hearing, said that Keith should have presented data to back up his allegations instead of making general accusations against PhilHealth.
“Maybe he should substantiate ‘yung mga accusation niya kasi very general ‘yung mga sinasabi niya. He is the anti-fraud legal officer, ‘di sana meron siyang datos,” said Morales.
Morales added that PhilHealth could have lost P10.2 billion due to fraud in 2019 and this could double to P18 billion by next year should the issue of alleged irregularities in the corporation remain unaddressed.
“I have maintained from day one of my tenure that the main solution to this systematic fraud problem lies in our robust, integrated, and harmonized information management system running a clean, complete, and updated membership database,” he said.
“Marami pong dapat ayusin sa PhilHealth. PhilHealth needs help. It has taken too many body blows. Tulungan ho natin ang PhilHealth. Kung maari ho, ‘wag pagtulungan,” he added.
At the start of the hearing, Sen. Panfilo Lacson bared the names of who do not run out of “malevolent schemes to enrich themselves of a deeply-rooted mafia syndicate” manipulating the financial records of PhilHealth despite changes in leadership.
Lacson named Atty. Rodolfo del Rosario, now Senior Vice President of the Legal Sector; Dr. Israel Pargas, SVP for Health Finance Policy Sector; Corporate Secretary Jonathan Mangaoang; and Dennis Mas, SVP for Management Services Sector.
“Notice there is PhilHealth’s recurring pattern of violations of auditing rules in terms of suspensions, disallowances and charges,” Lacson said. “Even in the middle of a global pandemic, PhilHealth continues to face a train of anomalies, this time involving three major issues we are tackling today.”
PhilHealth is tasked to administer the National Health Insurance Program which aims to provide health insurance coverage and ensure affordable, acceptable, available and accessible health care services for all citizens of the Philippines./PN
