Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 22) — No officials have defrauded the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) despite fresh allegations of corruption within the state insurer, its chief maintained on Monday.
PhilHealth president and CEO Ricardo Morales reiterated during the “Laging Handa” briefing that it is “premature” to go to President Rodrigo Duterte without substantial claims, following reports of missing ₱154-billion funds within the agency through “fraudulent schemes.”
Morales was referring to the previous remark of Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque that he will set a meeting with Duterte to address the supposed allegations about the agency.
“I think it is premature to go to the President without resolution,” Morales stressed. “Noong pumasok ako, that issue has already been in existence lalo na yang ₱154 billion na nawawala daw na pondo (When I came in, the issue has already been in existence including the ₱154-billion funds that was supposedly missing).”
“I can assure you that there is no group of people colluding with each other to defraud PhilHealth in this scare reported,” he added.
Morales cited the recent statement of the Commission on Audit which found no losses of ₱154 billion in any of the audited financial statements of the insurer in past five years.
However, Morales argued that “no health system can be entirely fraud-free,” and only a “harmonized information system” can solve such problem.
“We are a large corporation,” he pointed out. “Everyday, we process about 50,000 claims in about 16 regional offices and 120 branches. Sa laki ng volume of transactions, may inefficiencies yan (Due to the large volume of transactions, there will definitely be inefficiencies).”
Roque called out Morales last week for failing to curb corruption in the agency, noting that he should have investigated the issue and removed officials who needed to be accountable earlier on.
The presidential spokesperon also refuted claims that he is interested to be the next PhilHealth chief amid the controversy.
Roque said Morales’ complaints of lack of funds in PhilHealth are primarily due to the presence of corrupt officials in the agency.
Citing decline in collection due to the pandemic, Morales has been appealing to delay the implementation of the Universal Health Care Law, a measure authored by Roque himself when he was a party-list lawmaker in the 17th Congress.
“Demotion po iyan (That’s a demotion), I’m not interested” he said during Monday’s virtual briefing in Malacañang.
Morales claimed that the agency will be fine for the rest of the year with a reserve of ₱130 billion.
