Ombudsman suspends 11 PhilHealth officials

The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the preventive suspension of 11 incumbent and former officials of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
A resolution obtained by The Manila Times showed that those ordered suspended were former acting president Roy Ferrer; former interim president Celestina Ma. Jude de la Serna; then-Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ruben John Basa; Dennis Mas, senior vice president for the Management Services Sector; Shirley Domingo, vice president for Corporate Affairs Group; Rodolfo del Rosario Jr., a senior vice president; then-Head Executive Assistant Raul Dominic Badilla; then-Head Executive Assistant Israel Pargas; then-Corporate Legal Counsel Angelito Grande; then-Attorney IV, Office of the Corporate Legal Counsel Lawrence Mijares; and then-acting senior manager of the Human Resource Department Leila Tuazon.

The Manila Times could not establish the complaint that prompted the Ombudsman order because it only got hold of the resolution’s dispositive section.

In August last year, however, Harry Roque Jr., before his appointment as Palace spokesman, filed a case before the Ombudsman in connection with the supposed reversal of a Court of Appeals decision to suspend a hospital in Cebu that he claimed led to a loss of at least P90 million in benefit claims from PhilHealth

In February 2020, Roque and Ken Sarmiento filed a graft complaint against four people, including Mas, who at the time was regional vice president for PhilHealth Regional Office-National Capital Region, and Basa, then the officer-in-charge for the Office of the Chief Operating Officer, for their failure to act on supposedly anomalous transactions.

PhilHealth said on Wednesday it has not received a copy of the Ombudsman order.

“We will issue a full statement as soon as we get hold of the said order” the insurer said in a message on Twitter.

Domingo, who acts as the company’s vice president for corporate affairs, told The Manila Times that she was not aware of any case that was filed against her.

“Since my name is in the list for some reason I am not yet aware of, I think it is best not to comment,” she said.

Amid the flurry of investigations, Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd has ordered PhilHealth to review the Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) program, under which claims of hospitals and medical institutions were paid.

He said that confusion arose because different circulars were issued due to the need to readily provide financial support to health care institutions during the pandemic.

“Let us look into any loopholes and clarify procedures to ensure that the issues raised are responded to,” Duque said.

He said the effect of the coronavirus pandemic has been felt not only in hospitals with Covid-19 patients but also in other health facilities such as cancer and dialysis centers, maternity clinics and other similar facilities.

Senate, too
The preventive suspension of implicated PhilHealth officials was also recommended by the Senate to President Rodrigo Duterte Wednesday.

The recommendation was contained in a resolution filed by Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, which his colleagues unanimously adopted.

Zubiri said the officials’ refusal to submit documents to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Commission on Audit (CoA) warranted the suspension.

In a text message, Zubiri said Senate Resolution (SR) 502 covers Morales, the members of the executive board and the regional vice presidents.

“Allowing these PhilHealth officials to remain in office may give them time to tamper with, conceal or destroy important records, and further hamper the investigations of the NBI, CoA, the Ombudsman and other investigative bodies conducting investigations on PhilHealth,” Zubiri said.

Sen. Mary Grace Poe said SR 502 “is a critical step for PhilHealth to recuperate so how do we move forward from this train wreck?”

“Surely, this country has no shortage of men and women who can run PhilHealth. We thus expect that more competent individuals will be appointed outside of the usual pool of recycled appointees,” Poe said.

During the August 18 Senate hearing on the PhilHealth controversy, CoA Director Cleotilde Tuazon revealed that PhilHealth refused to submit documents “in time for auditing” and also denied state auditors full access to records, including non-submission of contracts, supporting documents and bidding documents.

Zubiri said the suspension would allow the NBI and CoA to get hold of records pertinent to their investigations.

He said PhilHealth’s “unwillingness to cooperate with regard to the submission of records could qualify as obstruction of justice.”

Whistleblowers Thorrsson Keith, Etrobal Laborte and Alejandro Cabading have revealed the scale of corruption in the agency — from nonexistent patients, rebates and overpayments to upcasing of illnesses, overpricing of information technology equipment and a questionable IRM.

Keith claimed that a “mafia” in PhilHealth has been behind large-scale corruption for years.

WITH RED MENDOZA AND BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO

Source: TheManila Times