MANILA – Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) vice president for operations Augustus De Villa tendered his “irrevocable resignation” on Thursday following allegations of corruption directed towards several officials in the firm.
“I hereby tender my irrevocable resignation, effective immediately, from the service of the Philippines Health Insurance Corporation,” read De Villa’s letter, a copy of which was shown to reporters by a source.
De Villa, in the letter, did not elaborate on specific reasons for his decision to resign.
“The Vice Chairman knows fully well the reason. I briefed him earlier today in his residence in Taguig City,” De Villa said, referring to PhilHealth vice chair, president and chief executive officer Ricardo Morales.
“Be assured that I will make myself available for the ongoing investigations in aid of legislation in both Houses of the Congress of the Philippines,” added De Villa, who was among the PhilHealth executives accused of corruption.
Meanwhile, PACC Commissioner Greco Belgica said at least 36 officials of the PhilHealth should be fired or face charges for their involvement in alleged overpayments made to hospitals.
Belgica did not identify the PhilHealth officials, whose names have been forwarded to the Office of the President (OP) as part of its initial report on the alleged anomalies in the state insurer.
According to Belgica, PhilHealth lost at least P154 billion due to overpayments since 2013. The overpayments persisted as there was no system to check the validity of the claims.
“Problema ho talaga diyan fundamentally sa IT (information technology) dahil ‘yung IT nila has no way of validating information na pinapadala sa kanila ng mga ospital and this has been going on for many, many years,” Belgica said.
Former PhilHealth Anti-Fraud Legal Officer Atty. Thorsson Montes Keith revealed during a Senate hearing earlier this week that around P15 billion in public funds had been pocketed by so-called “mafia” in the agency./PN
