Senators are urging President Duterte to consider their findings about Health Secretary Francisco Duque III's liability over the alleged irregularities in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).
"The President should talk to us and not just listen to the excuses. Better yet, should have the President read the Senate report," Senate President Vicente Sotto III said in a text message on Tuesday, September 8.
Duterte on Monday defended anew Duque and cleared him of liabilities in the reported corruption and anomalous transactions in the PhilHealth. "Wala ka doon sa ano -- tiningnan namin 'yong papel (We looked at the papers, you're not part of the people involved)," the President told his Department of Health (DOH) chief.
Sotto surmised that Duterte was "not aware of the facts" on what transpired in the state insurer.
He maintained that Duque, as the chairman of the PhilHealth Board of Directors, "is answerable to 217 of the Revised Penal Code whether one signed or not."
"All the more if you are the Chairman of the Board governing the agency," he pointed out.
The Senate adopted on Monday the Committee of the Whole's report on its legislative inquiry on the PhilHealth's mess and upheld the recommendation to file charges against Duque, ex-PhilHealth President Ricardo Morales and other senior officials of the corporation.
Duque was specifically implicated in the "improper and illegal" implementation of the agency's Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) which allegedly favored select health care facilities over tertiary and government hospitals that cater to coronavirus patients.
Duque concurrently chairs in an ex-officio capacity the PhilHealth's Board of Directors, which governs the corporation, its policy direction, and the monitoring and implementation of its programs.
But Senator Panfilo Lacson said that with the Duterte's recent pronouncement, Duque has practically been cleared of accountability over the issues with the PHilHealth's advanced payments.
"With his appointed chief investigator to his right and one of those being accused in the PhilHealth mess to his left, he cleared the accused of any wrongdoing. End of story," Lacson tweeted, recalling the last night's meeting that was also attended by Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, who leads the high-level task force that has been investigating the reported irregularities in the PhilHealth.
Lacson also admitted that Duterte is not obligated to heed the Senate's findings.
"The executive being an independent and separate branch of government is not bound by the Senate's findings regardless of individual alliances of the majority of its members with the President," he said in a separate text message.
He, however, expressed interest on how the the Guevarra-led task force "will treat those findings and recommendations now that the President has virtually cleared Duque of any wrongdoing."
Senator Francis Pangilinan, meanwhile, urged Malacañang to heed the call of the Senate and replace Duque at the helm of DOH and the interagency task force (IATF) handling the country's COVID-19 response.
"He is damaged goods and cannot hope to be able to effectively lead the country's already faltering anti-COVID campaign. It is long overdue for Malacañang to show decisive leadership and political will by firing Duque and revamping the IATF," Pangilinan said in a separate statement.
"Ang huling limang buwan ay naging kahila-hilakbot na pagpapakita ng kawalang-kakayahan at gulo sa PhilHealth (The last five months have been shown the incompetence and mess in PhilHealth). Dapat magising ang administrasyon na kailangan muling i-reboot at i-redirect ang kampanya ng COVID para malayo sa napakakitid nitong pagpapatupad ng batas at militaristikong bias tungo sa isang holistic na diskarte sa kalusugan ng taumbayan (This administration should reboot and redirect its COVID-19 campaign away from the militaristic and shallow implementation of laws and towards a holistic strategy for the people's health)," he said.
"Actualizing recommendation is a step in this direction," he added.