Duterte urged to consider govt system change to cure PhilHealth mess
Jimenez, an anti-crime advocate and founding chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), made the call as he lamented “the syndicated graft and corrupted system of our health services under a generally corrupted unitary form of government.”
“You know if we were not contaminated by this coronavirus pandemic, this corrupted system at Philhealth and perhaps with other health service agencies, with the involvement of other government agencies, would not have been much given attention. That’s why I urge the President to look into government system change because this is really where the problem is,” Jimenez told The Manila Times in a phone interview.
“This will have to be looked into by Congress as well because we’re touching here a change of governmental form. People want true change,” he added.
Jimenez has been pushing for a shift from a unitarian to a federal form of government, believing this would address corruption and other issues in the government.
His call for a change in the government system came amid an investigation into the supposed irregularities and rampant corruption within PhilHealth.
The PACC is one of the presidential offices looking into alleged irregularities at PhilHealth. It had submitted an initial report on its investigation and recommended the filing of graft and corruption cases against some high-ranking and mid-level officials of the state health insurer.
On Tuesday, PACC Commissioner Greco Belgica disclosed that the anomalies committed in the PhilHealth were “the worst” because its weekly fund releases that amount to as much as P3 billion “were exposed to corruption.”
Belgica also called for the ouster of PhilHealth chief Ricardo Morales during the resumption of the Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Source: TheManila Times
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