Lacson cites ‘conflict of interest’ vs Duque

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday raised some issues of possible conflict of interest on the part of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III over the controversy in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

Lacson said he learned that the regional office of PhilHealth in Dagupan City, Pangasinan is in a building owned by Duque.

“If this is not a conflict of interest I don’t know what is. He is the owner of the building and there is a contract of lease and that is a family corporation. And you are a member of the board... it’s here in the general information sheet. And the signatory in the contract of lease is his own sister. I have the documents already,” Lacson told the Kapihan sa Senado forum.

PhilHealth suspended the accreditation of WellMed Dialysis Center amid fraudulent and ghost claims on behalf of deceased patients.  

When asked if Duque is acting as a sort of godfather of WellMed, Lacson said, “When you connect the dots a whole story is being formed. We cannot stomach it because we keep raising taxes… then we learn that P250 billion is being squandered by these people? This has become systemic,.”

Duque, for his part, denied the allegations of conflict of interest made by Lacson.

He said in 2015, he retired from government service and returned to Dagupan City, his hometown. 

Duque recalled he was eventually elected as president and chief executive officer of the family-owned Educational and Medical Corp., which was running the Lyceum-Northwestern University in Dagupan.

“When I went back, PhilHealth was already a client of the family-owned corporation but I was not with PhilHealth then,” he said.

Duque said the lease contract with the regional PhilHealth office was already there when he joined the family business.  

Duque maintained he was not yet with the Department of Health (DOH) and PhilHealth then.

According to Duque, he resigned from his position at the family-owned company when he was appointed health secretary in 2017.

“Not because I went back to DOH, I will ask them to all get out. How about the clients and PhilHealth members who are processing their papers? There was a lease contract,” he said.

According to Duque, PhilHealth regional office has been “actively looking for a permanent site” but could not find a suitable location.

He added the lease contract is expiring this year and PhilHealth is requesting for an extension.  

“However, the company board has decided not to extend the contract because the building will be used for the expansion program of the university. We need more rooms and laboratories,” he added.  

Ingrained

Lacson said the issues on fraudulent claims in PhilHealth will not end since some of its officials and employees were part of the operation to get money from the government’s health insurance agency.

“Based on information coming in, the fraud or controversy in PhilHealth will not end because it has been ingrained in their system. For the longest time they have been squandering PhilHealth funds,” he added.

Lacson said the information is just the tip of the iceberg.

“I have it on good information. I have the documents, there are several modus operandi existing in PhilHealth,” he said.

He said another modus operandi involve some hospital administrators in cahoots with PhilHealth officials and employees who filed reports extending confinement of patients already discharged.

“A case in point (is the) Perpetual Succor Hospital in Cebu. There was a case because PhilHealth board is a quasi-judicial body. They can investigate and impose penalties,” he said.

In this particular case, Lacson said a decision was issued on Jan. 10, 2019.

“And Secretary Duque, being ex-officio chairman of the board, is one of the signatories. There’s a complaint for two counts of unauthorized extension of confinement in the hospital. When the PhilHealth board investigated, they found out the hospital has a liability so they suspended its operations for three months,” he added.

Lacson pointed out that cases handled by the PhilHealth board, being a quasi-judicial body, is appealable to the Court of Appeals (CA).

“Now the CA upheld the decision of PhilHealth, and they filed for MR (motion for reconsideration), the hospital, it was again denied. What the hospital did was go back to PhilHealth and appeal. And PhilHealth, the whole board, granted the appeal,” he added.

“So how could the PhilHealth board reverse the decision of the CA?” he asked. – With Sheila Crisostomo