A total of 43 senior officers of the embattled Philippine Health Insurance Corp. have either tendered their courtesy resignation or retired from service following a directive from President Rodrigo Duterte to clean up the agency.
The 43 officers – 27 of whom resigned while 16 retired – responded to the memo of PhilHealth president and CEO Dante Gierran for all senior officers with Salary Grade 26 and above to tender their courtesy resignation, the agency said in a statement.
Gierran, a lawyer and accountant who formerly headed the National Bureau of Investigation, has been tasked by Duterte to fix the alleged irregularities in the agency within the year.
Of those who resigned, 21 were from the central headquarters while six were from PhilHealth’s regional offices.
Earlier, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, who headed Task Force PhilHealth that investigated anomalies in the state insurer, recommended to President Duterte the reorganization of PhilHealth.
PhilHealth officials have been accused of misusing P15 billion worth of funds under its internal reimbursement mechanism (IRM), which granted advance payment claims to hospitals even if these do not cater to COVID-19 patients.
Per PhilHealth records, only P5.5 billion of the P15 billion IRM has been liquidated.