Newly-installed PhilHealth chief asked senior officials to resign

MANILA, Oct 2, 2020, Eagle News. Newly-installed PhilHealth chief Dante Gierran has asked senior officials of the state insurer to resign, Eagle News reported.

Presidential Spokesperson Harrry Roque said in a television interview on Friday, Oct. 2, that this was Gierran’s request as part of the reorganization of PhilHealth, which has been hounded by corruption allegations.

Thorrsson Montes Keith, former anti-fraud officer of PhilHealth, alleged a PhilHealth “mafia” got around P15 billion in PhilHealth funds.

PhilHealth’s Interim Reimbursement Mechanism and its proposal for an IT system was also the subject of several probes, following allegations it was overpriced.

“Attorney Gierran knows that he does not have much time. And that’s why I think it was important for him to request that all the senior executives file their courtesy resignations because that’s the fastest way that he can reorganize,” Roque said.

He expressed hope Gierran would be “guided by the Senate findings as well as the findings of Task Force PhilHealth.”

The task force, which had been formed upon the instruction of President Rodrigo Duterte, found that people who were supposed to set the policies and operational guidelines for the management of PhilHealth did not show the due diligence required of them in the discharge of their duties.

The task force particularly flagged PhilHealth’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee in its probe that focused on the Interim Reimbursement Mechanism, the PhilHealth-proposed P2-billion ICT system, and corporate policies.

President Duterte approved the filing of charges recommended by the task force against former PhilHealth chief Ricardo Morales and other incumbent and former PhilHealth officials.