Sotto says Chief Executive also mulling over privatizing state health insurer
President Duterte is mulling over whether to abolish or privatize the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) amid investigations on the reported corruption and anomalies in the agency.
(TOTO LOZANO/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said this was mentioned by Duterte when the matter was brought up during their meeting in Malacañang Wednesday night. “He said he wanted PhilHealth abolished or privatized but I said it might be better to wait a few months and see how the new admin performs,” Sotto told reporters in a message.
Duterte recently appointed former National Bureau of Investigation director Dante Gierran as PhilHealth president and chief executive officer, replacing retired general Ricardo Morales, whom he asked to resign amid the controversies.
Sotto said he also informed Duterte about his bill designating as chairman of the PhilHealth Board of Directors the Department of Finance (DOF) secretary, instead of the Department of Health (DOH) secretary.
“I explained that PhilHealth is an insurance corp and not a health entity,” Sotto said.
“He agreed to my proposal.” However, he said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III was not specifically mentioned by Duterte. “Hindi (No). Only PhilHealth. I was ready to talk about it but he did not bring the name up,” Sotto said.
Duterte had called for a meeting with Congress leaders for bills to further solve red tape in government.
“He wants to further amend the anti-red tape and ease of doing business law,” Sotto said.
Sen. Christopher Go, who was also in the meeting, said anti-corruption measures were also discussed. He said Duterte also asked lawmakers to amend laws to deter crimes.
“One of the topics discussed was the amendment of certain penal laws to increase the penalties, specifically length of imprisonment for certain crimes.
Longer sentences will lead to or will be effective in, lowering crimes,” Go said in a separate message.
Duterte is willing to appear in congressional hearings to help craft the measures, he said.
As this developed, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said more composite teams will be formed to investigate anomalies in the PhilHealth.
“We may create a few more,” said Guevarra, convenor of Task Force PhilHealth which investigated anomalies at the state health insurer.
On the other hand, Guevarra said he has not yet determined how many composite teams will be created and what specific issues these will look into.
“We need to prioritize, lest we spread ourselves too thinly,” Guevarra pointed out.
At the moment, Guevarra said Task Force PhilHealth has created two composite teams which are currently investigating separately the government corporation’s information technology (IT) and legal sectors.
He said the composite team investigating the IT sector is comprised of representatives from the Department of Justice (DOJ), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Presidential AntiCorruption Commission (PACC), and the Office of the Special Assistant to the President (OSAP) in cooperation with the Commission on Audit (COA).
While, the composite team investigating the legal sector consists of members from the DOJ, NBI, OSAP, and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) in cooperation with the COA.
Guevarra had earlier said that once Gierran takes his oath as PhilHealth president and chief executive officer, the two composite teams will be given 30 days to wrap up their respective investigations.