MANILA – The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) will pay its debts to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), the state insurer’s chief assured Friday.
“One thing is certain: may utang po ang PhilHealth sa Philippine Red Cross. We recognize the help of Philippine Red Cross to the government, particularly our brothers that are to be tested for COVID,” PhilHealth chief Dante Gierran told CNN Philippines’ The Source.
“One thing is sure also: we will pay for that, regardless of whether the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) will assume a negative position on the matter. Babayaran talaga ng PhilHealth ‘yan,” he added.
However, Gierran underscored that there were questionable provisions in PhilHealth’s existing deal for coronavirus tests with PRC.
“We want to pay, only that we have to clear some legal issues affecting the memorandum of agreement that was entered into earlier between the management of PhilHealth and the Philippine Red Cross,” he said.
According to Gierran, while the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act allowed PhilHealth to proceed under an emergency-negotiated bidding with Red Cross in May, the contract between the two entities should have complied with existing procurement laws.
He added that the contract approved by former PhilHealth president Ricardo Morales to provide a P100-million revolving fund did not comply with the procurement directives of the Office of the Executive Secretary.
“The right thing for me to do is to be prudent. I have to seek the opinion of the Department of Budget, and up to this point, still waiting,” he said. “The moment that government’s money is being transferred to a private hand, it should be regulated by the procurement body.”
“It’s not enough that there is a directive for doing this and then we will not make safety nets for the disbursements of the money. Otherwise, I will be committing another round of imprudence like what happened under the previous management – it’s something I will not do,” he added.
The PRC on Thursday announced the stoppage in acceptance of clients who want to undergo swab testing where the cost will be shouldered by PhilHealth after the agency accumulated a debt of around P931 million.
According to PRC, PhilHealth did not mention “any forthcoming payment” in its October 6 letter, which eventually led to this decision as the unpaid balances were hampering their operations, particularly its purchases of additional test kits and equipment.
Red Cross’ facilities account for one-fourth of the country’s testing capacity, which could leave thousands of Filipinos, including overseas Filipino workers, arriving airport and seaport passengers, frontliners, and government workers, unable to avail of COVID-19 testing while the issue is unresolved./PN
