Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Wednesday Health Secretary Francisco Duque III would heed the call for Philippine Health Insurance Corp.’s executives to go on leave following the probe into the alleged corruption within the agency.
“Of course, the secretary of Health, being the chairman of PhilHealth, would always support this call to be investigated,” Vergeire said.
“This is for transparency and to clear everybody.”
PhilHealth’s executives, led by President Ricardo Morales, have been accused by former PhilHealth anti-fraud officer Thorrsson Montes Keith of pocketing P15 billion of the state insurer's funds through the agency’s Interim Reimbursement Mechanism for hospitals for COVID-19 and other schemes.
Keith also accused Morales of ordering him to talk to Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission chief Greco Belgica and justify PhilHealth’s COVID-19 testing package that critics had tagged as overpriced.
But his accusations had long been denied by PhilHealth officials including Morales.
Belgica has said that PhilHealth has no validation mechanism in processing claims, exposing P2 billion to P3 billion of its funds to corruption on a weekly basis.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Monday he hoped certain PhilHealth officials would voluntarily go on leave as the agency faced an "intense" investigation.
Morales said he was considering going on leave in July as a result of the issues hounding the agency.
And on Wednesday he said he would go on medical leave starting next week on the advice of his doctor.
Morales is undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma.