Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Sunday said Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) President and Chief Executive Officer Ricardo Morales has no other option but to resign especially if he fails to disprove the allegations of massive corruption within the government-controlled agency.
(SENATE OF THE PHILIPPINES / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
Lacson is referring to fresh allegations of “systemic corruption” in PhilHealth which resurfaced after three officials reportedly resigned after a “shouting match” during their online meeting attended by other top government officials.
On top of this issue, Lacson had earlier divulged that PhilHealth is also involved in a malevolent scheme that led to millions worth of funds being funneled to a few unaccredited hospitals that register only one COVID-19 patients.
“Unless ma-refute niya (Morales) ito credibly, itong mga allegation dito na sabi ko nga may documents, walang ibang mapuntahan kundi mag-resign (Unless he can refute it credibly, these allegations which I can back up with documents, there’s no other way out but to resign),” Lacson said in an interview over GMANews TV.
“Kung totoo lahat itong allegation. And so far at face value sasabihin ko totoo ito kasi supported ito by documents. Pero kung ma-refute niya ito sa pamamagitan ng dokumento o issuances na official din at mabe-break niya ang credibility nitong documents na hawak namin sa ngayon, puwedeng sabihin natin na naninira lang ang itong mga tao (If these allegations are true. But so far, at face value, I’m saying it is true, because these are supported by documents. Now if he can refute it also by presenting official documents or issuances and he can break the credibility of these documents I’m holding now, we can say that these persons are just trying to destroy him),” Lascon added.
Morales had earlier denied that he was part of the controversial Zoom meeting, but presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, in a separate interview, attested that the PhilHealth chief was part of the meeting. Also present were Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go.
Lacson, and Senate President Vicente Sotto III also questioned Morales’ claim PhilHealth has no anti-fraud office when there are documents to prove such division exists in the agency.
Sotto also said he is skeptical over Morales’ claim that Thornson Montest Keith, one of the PhilHealth officials who resigned, was merely vengeful after failing to get the job position he was applying for in the agency.
“Let the document speak for itself. Between his word and the official documents ng PhilHealth, ano ang papaniwalaan natin? 'Yan ang malaking problema (who are we going to believe? That’s a big problem),” Lacson pointed out.
“Kung sa umpisa pa lang meron ka nang credibility problem dahil nagsinungaling ka sa napakasimpleng bagay napakasimpleng interview, ang malalaking bagay na sasabihin mong walang corruption lumalabas ngayon at nababasa ninyo sa aming ifa-file na resolution bukas napakaliwanang ng mga allegation (If you have a credibility problem right from the start because you lied in a very simple interview. You’ll find out once we file the resolution tomorrow, the allegations are clear and it’s a huge thing if you say there is no corruption when it is now slowly being revealed),” he added.
According to Lacson, the documents some senators now have in their hands also came from within the agency.
“Ito naman binase namin sa dokumentong nakuha namin sa loob sa PhilHealth din. So hindi naman puwede isama namin sa resolution na nanghuhula kami (We based the allegations on the documents we got inside PhilHealth. We can’t say in our resolution that we are merely guessing),” explained the former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief.