Senators on Friday urged the task force investigating the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to probe deeper into reports of a “roof leak” in the agency’s office in Pangasinan where some documents and computer equipment that could be crucial evidence to the ongoing investigation were reportedly destroyed.

“I am calling the attention of the task force recently created to investigate PhilHealth anomalies to also look into this matter with the help of the NBI and other concerned agencies,” Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go said in a statement.

“Ayaw kong pangunahan ang kalalabasan ng imbestigasyon, pero dapat malaman kung dulot lang ba talaga ito ng malakas na ulan, may kapabayaan bang naganap, o sadyang hinayaang masira ang mga dokumento (I don’t wish to preempt the outcome of the investigation, but we need to know if heavy rain was really the cause, or if there was neglect on the part of the office or they destroyed the documents deliberately),” Go added.

Go further questioned PhilHealth over the issue asking why the regional office did not make any efforts to fix its roof, despite having enough funds for it.

“Kapag sa korapsyon napupunta ang pondo ng bayan, ganito ang nangyayari — apektado ang serbisyo sa tao at kawawa ang mga empleyadong malilinis ang hangarin at nais lang maglingkod sa bayan (If funds are used in corruption, this is what happens—public service is affected and those employees who are merely working hard and truthfully are also affected),” Go lamented.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri also urged the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to get to the bottom of the issue and to see if the roof leak was deliberately done to obstruct the ongoing investigations.

“We urge the executive and the Ombudsman to immediately implement the suspension orders and appoint trust worthy OICs so that the important documents can be protected,” Zubiri said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson also said he agrees that there is reason enough to suspect that the destruction of documents and records was intentional.

“In fact, when the incident was reported to my office, I advised the lead PACC investigator who was still in the area, thru a member of my staff to seek the assistance of the NBI to immediately conduct forensics on the damaged portion of the building to determine if force was applied to cause the water leaks,” Lacson said.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III, for his part, said he believes the “so-called mafia has called on the cleaners.”

The Senate is investigating the alleged abuses in the use of Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) funds. Instead of the money going to hospitals that have COVID-19 patients, senators discovered that IRM funds are given to health facilities with non-COVID patients.

Lawmakers, at the same time, are also investigating PhilHealth’s alleged overpriced procurement of Information Technology (IT) systems, which senators believe was deliberately bloated by some of the agency’s officials to generate kickbacks.