Senator Panfilo M. Lacson said today that there is still no direct evidence to pin down any of the ranking officers of the beleaguered Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) being investigated by the Senate Committee of the Whole on alleged widespread corruption.
"Pero pag na-consolidate natin ang dokumento at na-analyze ito ng mga investigator natin doon magkakaalaman,’’ Lacson told Senate reporters on his analysis of yesterday’s Senate in-person and virtual public hearing. (This will unravel after the documents in the Senate’s possession have been consolidated and analyzed by investigators).
Lacson, vice chairman of the Senate Committee of the Whole, said there is also a parallel investigation on the PhilHealth mess being undertaken by the executive branch.
President Duterte earlier created a Task Force to investigate allegations of widespread corruption at PhilHealth. The Task Force is headed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and will be headed by other government agencies.
“I hope ishe-share namin lahat nakuha naming document sa task force kung tatanggapin nila,’’ he said. (I hope we will share with the Task Force the documents we have received.)
Lacson, chairman of the Senate national defense and security committee, pointed out that Greco Belgica, commissioner of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PACC) is ‘’more than willing and I could sense even in his opening statement na talagang determinado (PACC is really determined) to get to the bottom.’’
PACC had estimated that financial loss of PhilHealth due to corruption has reached the P154 billion mark from 2013 to the present.
But if a statement of Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Carlos Dominguez were to be taken at face value, PhilHealth’s loss has reached P200 billion.
There are reports that PhilHealth is asking P2.1 billion for its information technology (IT) equipment expenditures.
"In one of the press conferences or statements issued by SOF (Secretary of Finance) Dominguez, sabi niya (he said) you already spent P200 billion. Sabi niya (he said) you fix your IT system, you’re asking for P2.1 billion, you already spent P200 billion. I don’t know if he was misquoted or nagkamali ang sinabi niya,’’ he added. (Dominguez could have made a mistake in stating that figure.)
"But I intend to ask PhilHealth mismo (itself), so far from the time nag-start sila mag-procure to enhance their IT system, naka-magkano na sila? Doon para mabalikan natin lahat na procurement. Makita natin ilan ang overpricing. Ito pa lang, kung ganito kalaki ang procurement noong 2017 tapos in-attempt uli 2018 tapos ngayon 2020, you can just imagine. Kasi 5000 percent eh,’’ Lacson pointed out. (How much has PhilHealth really spent for its IT? We will ask them on their procurement. We will see an instance of overpricing. (The overpricing in 2017 was repeated in 2018, now it is 2020. You can just imagine because the overpricing has jumped 5,000 percent.)
Lacson also chided Ricardo Morales, PhilHealth president and chief executive officer (CEO), for calling the attention of senators that they are not hearing their explanations.
‘’Kami pa ngayon may kasalanan. Samantalang hinihilo nga nila kami sa explanation nila kaya minsan kina-cut namin kasi paikot-ikot. Every time maraming senador magtatanong, bakit nyo ginamit ang iRM para sa COVID sa non-COVID? Sagot nila, mandate ng PhilHealth tugunan ang pangangailangan ng dialysis patient, maternity care. Ang layo ng sagot,’’ he said. (Now we are the ones who are complicit. They have been confusing us. Their explanations on the rationale for the creation of Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections is that we don’t give a damn to the needs of dialysis patients. It is like they are alienating us from dialysis patients…as if we discriminate against dialysis patient who need health from PhilHealth.)
Lacson stressed that a circular for the IRM scheme adopted by PhilHealth was mainly for fortuitous events and COVID-19 is one such event.
He said the Senate has established that there was favoritism in the grant of IRM by PhilHealth.
Lacson also said that it is very clear that there were violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act on specific cases of gross overpricing on items the Senate has unearthed so far.