Sen. Richard Gordon today shrugged off accusations that the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee report on the alleged corruption at the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) was an attempt to cover-up and provide damage control to the Duterte administration.
(ALI VICOY / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
Gordon said Sen. Leila de Lima’s allegations was not true and insisted that the report was not meant to shield the administration from the Senate investigation on corruption surrounding the alleged misuse of the PhilHealth Interim Reimbursement Mechanism funds and the supposed overpriced Information Technology (IT) system project of the agency.
“What can I expect from Sen. de Lima? She's very bitter. That's her right, that's her privilege and I'll let it go by that,” Gordon said in an interview over ANC.
Gordon said he never sided with the President and neither did he ask for any favors from the current administration.
"Wala naman akong hinihingi kay President Duterte (I’m not asking anything from President Duterte). I haven't seen him for the last two or three years,” Gordon stressed.
Gordon’s committee report recommended the filing of criminal charges against former Health Secretary now Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin, former PhilHealth president and CEO Alexander Padilla, and former Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad for the diversion of the P20.6-billion PhilHealth funds in 2015.
The report was released a few days before the Senate Committee of the Whole released its own findings on the current investigation on the PhilHealth anomalies.
In a statement, De Lima had said that the executive summary of the Blue Ribbon Committee’s report appears to be a cover-up and "damage control for Mr. Duterte and his men in PhilHealth.”
Gordon maintained he is not a lackey of the Duterte government he has also been at odds with some of the President’s policies and pronouncements.
“Marami siyang posisyon na ayoko. Ayoko 'yung mga statements niya na may kasamang mura, 'yung tinitira niya ang Simbahan (I don’t agree with most of his policies. I don’t like his statements and even his cursing, and him criticizing the Church),” he said.