Morales to go on medical leave amid probes into alleged corruption at PhilHealth
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Health Insurance Corp. chief Ricardo Morales on Wednesday said he would be taking a medical leave starting next week.
"I'm hard-headed but I am now following my doctor's advice and he said, if i want to get better, I have to take a leave. So next week, I will go on [medical] leave," he told ABS-CBN in Filipino.
The PhilHealth chief's condition was publicized after he sent a medical certificate, dated August 7, to the Senate Committee of the Whole which stated that he was undergoing treatment for lymphoma and that he had been advised by his doctors to take a leave of absence.
Two days later, he expressed his intent to go on medical leave.
Morales on Tuesday sat through a Senate hearing which lasted well over nine hours, the second installment of the upper chamber's probe into PhilHealth.
P15 billion funds allegedly lost to corruption
Last week, former Philippine Health Insurance Corp. anti-fraud legal officer Thorrsson Keith alleged that executives of the state firm have stolen P15 billion from its funds.
"What we found at PhilHealth is the crime of the year due to the syndication of the distribution of cash advance, the interim reimbursement mechanism, and the repeated overpricing of purchased IT equipment," Keith told the Senate in Filipino.
READ: Whistleblower accuses PhilHealth execs of stealing P15 billion through fraud schemes
The following week, the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission warned that funds released by PhilHealth which can go as high as P3 billion per week remain susceptible to fraud.
"Two to three billion pesos is released by PhilHealth each week and all this is exposed to corruption. And now, while we are at this hearing, the theft and pay-offs continues among those who steal because the system has not been changed," PACC Commissioner Greco Belgica told the Senate in Filipino.
Morales on Wednesday said he wanted to see the commission's findings, which were submitted to the chief executive on Monday, as he feared a "sweeping generalization" being made against PhilHealth officials.
"There are many upright people in PhilHealth, not all are corrupt," he said in Filipino.
Investigation amid COVID-19 pandemic
The House of Representatives, the Ombudsman, and an inter-agency task force led by the Justice Department are also conducting separate probes into allegations of corruption, irregularities and mismanagement against PhilHealth executives.
Morales said he was looking for an opportunity to have a "heart-to-heart" with Duterte, who on August 7ordered that the inter-agency PhilHealth Task Force be formed to investigate erring officials and further anomalies within the state-run insurer.
These allegations of corruption against officials of the state-run health insurer are unfolding as the country faces a crisis of epic proportions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Monday saw another record-breaking high of almost 7,000 new infections among Filipinos, while almost 3,000 new cases logged on Tuesday upped the national caseload to 139, 538.
Upon the urging of medical frontliners who said they were increasingly overwhelmed by the surge in COVID-19 cases, Duterte reverted Metro Manila and nearby provinces to a stricter modified enhanced community quarantine until at least August 18.
Wednesday marks the 148th day that the country has been under community quarantine — the longest in the world.
The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. is facing scrutiny anew over more allegations of corruption.
It was in the headlines last year because of an alleged scam involving payments to WellMed Dialysis Center for treatments charged for a patient who had already died.
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The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation announces that the agency has released P500 million as partial payment to the Philippine Red Cross.
"PhilHealth takes exception to the insinuation that it is reckless and is playing on people’s lives. Its prudence in taking charge of its members’ hard-earned contributions is central to the state health insurer. Its exercise of judiciousness is to protect the people and their funds", PhiHealth President and CEO Dante Gierran says in a statement.
PhilHealth has released P50 million as partial payment to the Philippine Red Cross, PhilHealth President and CEO Dante Gierran says.
"PhilHealth takes exception to the insinuation that it is reckless and is playing on people’s lives. Its prudence in taking charge of its members’ hard-earned contributions is central to the state health insurer," Gierran says.
The state insurer adds that it will expedite the processing of its remaining balance to Red Cross following strict compliance to government accounting rules and regulations.
Two committees in the House approve a report recommending the filing of administrative and criminal charges against Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, former PhilHealth chief Ricardo Morales and other officials over the widespread corruption in the state health insurer.
President Rodrigo Duterte says the government will compensate the Philippine Red Cross for COVID-19 tests.
The Red Cross recently halted conducting tests due to the P930 million debt of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation for the conduct of COVID-19 tests for the government.
"I don't think Sen. (Richard) Gordon would have in his mind to stop. What I'm trying to say is we will pay," Duterte says in a recorded address aired Monday night.
The Philippine Red Cross will stop conducting COVID-19 tests chargeable to PhilHealth due to the state insurer's outstanding balance.
PRC says it will no longer receive specimens for testing of OFWs, those arriving in airports and seaports, individuals through mega swabbing facilities, frontline health and government workers, and others included in the expanded testing guidelines of the DOH.
"The PRC does not have unlimited resources to replenish the testing kits for its laboratories unless PhilHealth, its major creditor, settles its lawful obligations to the PRC," PRC says in a statement dated October 14.
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