MANILA – The Senate Committee of the Whole recommended the filing of criminal charges against Health secretary Francisco Duque III and several former and incumbent officials of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) over alleged anomalies at the state health insurer.
Duque, resigned PhilHealth president Ricardo Morales and other executive officers of the insurance agency should be charged with malversation and graft for the “improper and illegal implementation” of the interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM).
“We are in the middle of a pandemic and we should not change horses mid-stream… However, it may be a worse course of action for this august chamber to sit idly by knowing how mismanaged PhilHealth is,” Senate President Vicente Sotto III said in his sponsorship speech in plenary.
Also implicated for the same charges were PhilHealth executive vice president and chief operating officer Arnel De Jesus, senior vice president for fund management sector Renato Limsiaco Jr. and senior vice president for health finance policy sector Israel Pargas.
According to Sotto, the mentioned also allegedly violated the National Internal Revenue Code and Republic Act 1051 for failure to withhold the taxes in the advancement of funds through the IRM to health care institutions and for their act of charging the obligations to the Corporate Operating Budget after failing to withhold the taxes.
The Senate President also noted that the IRM implementation does not have any legal justification as the Board Resolution concerning it was belatedly adopted on March 31, 2020, while the Circular 2020-0007 was implemented on March 20, 2020.
The Committee of the Whole report also recommended the filing of charges against now-resigned PhilHealth senior vice president for legal sector Rodolfo Del Rosario for supposed violation of Article 208 of the Revised Penal Code with regards to negligence and tolerance and the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
PhilHealth senior vice president for information management sector Jovita Aragona, and Information Technology and Management Department acting senior manager Calixto Gabuya Jr., on the other hand, were implicated in the supposed overpricing of IT supply and the concealment or alteration of documents.
The Senate recommended that they be slapped with charges for violation of the Articles 171, 213, and 226 of the Revised Penal Code, Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and the Government Procurement Reform Act.
The Senate hearings revolved around issues involving the questionable implementation of the IRM, the alleged overpriced IT equipment, supposed manipulation of financial statements, and legal cases that were unresolved. (With ABS-CBN News/PN)
