Whistleblowers in WellMed case arrested, lawyer says

MANILA, Philippines — A Quezon City court ordered the arrest of the two whistleblowers in the alleged money-making scheme using government funds for non-existent kidney treatments, their lawyer confirmed Friday.

Lawyer Harry Roque confirmed in a phone interview with Philstar.com that WellMed Dialysis and Laborator Center employee Edwin Roberto and Philippine Health Insurance Corp. official Liezel de Leon were arrested Thursday night.

Case re-filed

Roque explained that the two whistleblowers lost the benefits of the Witness Protection Program after the case was re-filed before a Metropolitan Trial Court.

The WPP is a program under the Justice department and created through Republic Act 6981, "to encourage a person who has witnessed or has knowledge of the commission of a crime to testify before a court or a quasi-judicial body, or before an investigating authority, by protecting him from reprisals and from economic dislocation."

Last August, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 219 dismissed the criminal charges against WellMed owner Bryan Christopher Sy, Roberto, De Leon and other unidentified individuals for lack of jurisdiction.

They were facing 17 counts of estafa through falsification of public and/or official documents.

READ: RTC: Cases vs WellMed owner, whistleblowers filed at wrong court

The QC RTC ruled that the case should have been filed before a metropolitan trial court or a first-level court. "This court is bereft of jurisdiction to take cognizance of the estafa through falsification of public/official documents cases which properly pertains to the first level courts," Judge Janet Abergos-Samar said in the ruling.

Roque claimed that the arrest of Roberto and De Leon is unjust as the owners of WellMed are currently out on bail.

The bail, the lawyer said, is set at P610,000 for each accused. He said Roberto and De Leon cannot pay that amount.

Roque said they are “arranging for the [Department of Justice] to discharge them as accused.”

The complaint

The charge stemmed from a complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation.

According to the NBI's complaint, Roberto narrated in his sworn affidavit that on March 30, 2016, Sy ordered him "to try to charge a dialysis billing amounting to P2,600 PhilHealth claims of dead individuals."

READ: DOJ indicts WellMed owner on estafa, falsification of docs over illegal kidney treatments

"Because of such, he [Roberto] instructed de Leon to generate PhilHealth Benefit Eligibility Form coming from the PhilHealth Portal together with the Claim Form 2 and Member's Data Record," the complaint read.

Roberto also alleged that prior to his resignation in March 2018, "a total amount of P600,000 composing 200 dialysis sessions were settled by PhilHealth to WellMed Dialysis & Laboratory Center Corporation."

PhilHealth officials, including president and chief executive officer Roy Ferrer, have resigned over the controversy.