Malacañang thanked the House panel for offering to grant President Duterte emergency powers to resolve the problems in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) but preferred to study the proposal first.

The Palace has yet to see the details of the House proposal and must study whether the President still needs such additional powers to deal with the problems in PhilHealth, according to Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque. 

At present, Roque acknowledged that the President has enough powers to address the problems of the country.

"We welcome the willingness of the House of Representatives to give such emergency powers to the President, pero hindi po ako makakomento kasi hindi ko pa nakikita kung ano talaga iyong rekomendasyon ng Mababang Kapulungan (but I will not further comment because I haven't seen the recommendation from the Lower House)," he said during a Palace press briefing Thursday.

“Pag-aaralan po natin kung kinakailangan talaga iyang emergency powers na iyan. Sa ngayon po, tayo naman po ay may sapat na kapangyarihan bilang isang commander-in-chief ang ating Presidente (We will study if the emergency powers are really needed. For now, the President has sufficient powers as commander-in-chef)," he said in an interview with RMN.

On Wednesday, a joint congressional committee proposed the grant of emergency powers to Duterte to reorganize PhilHealth to curb corruption and financial losses of PhilHealth. House Committee on Public Accounts chair Mike Defensor reportedly said they intend to file the proposed Emergency Powers Act in relation to addressing the issues hounding the state health insurer.

Roque recognized that Congress' prerogative to propose additional powers for the President. He said the President’s’ allies apparently wanted to help the President.  He noted it was prudent to wait for the contents of such proposal.

“Beyond theory, the President has the powers that he needs to address the problems of the situation pero nagpapasalamat kami sa suporta na pinapakita ng supporters at kaalyado ni Presidente (but we thank the supporters and allies of the President for their support),” he said.

If he had his way, Roque said the PhilHealth should be abolished and be replaced with the National Health Service based on his original universal health care law bill. If the state firm is abolished, he said all corrupt personnel can be removed from office.

"Ngayon kinakailangan mag due process pa at magko-korte pa sila (Now, they have to be given due process and even go to court)," said Roque, author of the universal health care law when he was still a congressman. 

Roque said the President would wait for the results of the investigation  being conducted by a task force into the corruption allegations in PhilHealth. The panel includes representatives from the Department of Justice, Office of the Ombudsman, among others.

"The President will respect the findings of his own task force because it is composed of individuals not only with the required qualification to determine culpability but also the powers precisely to determine this kind of culpability, dahil kasama po diyan ang Ombudsman at saka Civil Service Commission," he said.