PACC to govt execs: ‘Resignation won’t spare you from liability, prosecution’

THE Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) on Friday warned all government officials that their resignations from office would not shield them from any administrative or criminal liability.

PACC Chairman Dante Jimenez made the statement after PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Ricardo Morales, as well as PhilHealth senior vice president for legal sector Rodolfo del Rosario Jr., quit their respective posts amid controversies hounding the government-run insurance firm.

In a statement, Jimenez warned government officials in the executive branch to stay away from corruption or face the full might of the law.

”The PACC is consolidating complaints, reports and testimonies of alleged graft and corruption against some officials, not only in the case of PhilHealth, but also of other corruption-prone agencies such as the Bureau of Customs (BoC), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), to name a few,” Jimenez told The Manila Times.

Jimenez, an anti-crime advocate and founding chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, said that the PACC was “building solid cases that will uncover the masterminds and their collaborators behind the unending corruption in their respective agencies.”

“We are on track in pinning down these perpetrators. Resignation will not spare them from liability and prosecution,” he added, referring to Executive Order 73 that authorizes the Commission to continue its investigation of resigned or retired public officers under its jurisdiction.

Morales, who admitted to have been diagnosed with lymphoma or cancer of the lymph nodes, submitted his resignation on Wednesday upon President Rodrigo Duterte’s advice to allow the embattled PhilHealth chief to focus on his health first.

Morales’ performance has been under close scrutiny in light of numerous allegations of corruption taking place at the state-run insurer.

Aside from Morales, Del Rosario, who is among those suspended by the Ombudsman for six months without pay, also announced on Monday that he was tendering his irrevocable resignation.

Several officials are being accused of being members of the so-called PhilHealth “mafia” that is allegedly manipulating the state insurer’s financial records.

Jimenez said the PACC was in “close collaboration” with an inter-agency task force formed by President Duterte to investigate the corruption allegations against some PhilHealth officials.

He claimed that the various forms of corrupt schemes allegedly perpetrated at PhilHealth “give the impression that some officials in the agency have mastered the art of getting around the system.”

“The PACC has committed its relentless pursuit of corrupt officials in response to the President’s self-imposed challenge to ensure that these perpetrators will be put behind bars until his term ends,” Jimenez said.

“The old practice of KKK, or ‘kanya-kanyang kurakutan,’ when the term of the President is about to end, must be stopped,” he added.

Source: TheManila Times