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.
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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.