Senator Panfilo Lacson said Sunday the Senate may initiate its own filing of charges against the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation officials not charged by the National Bureau of Investigation over the alleged corruption involving the Interim Reimbursement Mechanism at the state health insurer.
He says nobody can stop them from filing charges before the Ombudsman as they will go there as a body if the House of Representatives will join them, because it has also conducted its own investigation.
Although the Senate had its own probe, he said, the complaints filed by the NBI against the erring PhilHealth officials were based on the investigation by the Department of Justice-led task force. He said it was likely that the Senate and the Justice department had different views on the cases.
Lacson also noted that despite the filing of the complaints, the task force had not yet finished its probe as it had been pressed to submit its report due to the one-month deadline by President Rodrigo Duterte.
As a result, Lacson said, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and former PhilHealth senior vice president Rodolfo Del Rosario Jr. may still be included among those to be charged after the second phase of the task force's investigation.
Duque and Del Rosario were among the PhilHealth officials recommended by the Senate to be charged following their own investigation into the issue.
Among those facing complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman are resigned PhilHealth chief Ricardo Morales, executive vice president and chief operating officer Arnel De Jesus, and senior vice presidents Renato Limsiaco Jr. and Israel Francis Pargas.
Meanwhile, Senator Christoper Go hopes that PhilHealth reforms could lead to corruption-free services for the Filipinos.
Go, head of the Senate health committee, said the newly appointed PhilHealth president Dante Gierran must be given a chance to rid the agency of corruption before considering privatizing or abolishing PhilHealth.
To further boost the efforts to combat corruption, Go urged all government employees to report questionable activities that may be taking place within government offices.
He also said that, to improve the management of the agency’s finances, Senate President Vicente Sotto III had filed a bill that would amend the Universal Health Care Act and replace the health secretary with the finance secretary as ex-officio chairman of PhilHealth’s governing board. Go gave his support to this proposed measure.
Go also said Secretary Francisco Duque III was doing his best to lead the Department of Health and overcome the COVID-19 pandemic by fulfilling his responsibilities at the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, among others.
He said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III was open to taking on the challenge and had pledged to go after all corrupt individuals within and outside PhilHealth should the amendment pass, making him the ex-officio head of the PhilHealth Board.