11 PHILHEALTH EXECS SUSPENDED, FINALLY

THE incessant calls to at least “suspend” the top officials of the graft-ridden, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) was finally heeded last week after the Office of the Ombudsman released an order suspending 11 of its former and incumbent officials for six months without pay.

Two resolutions, approved by Ombudsman Samuel Martires last August 18, 2020 but copies of which were provided to the media the next day, disclosed that ordered suspended were:

Former acting president Roy Ferrer; former interim president Celestina Ma. Jude de la Serna; then-Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ruben John Basa;

Dennis Mas, senior vice president for the Management Services Sector; Shirley Domingo, vice president for Corporate Affairs Group;

Senior Vice President Rodolfo del Rosario Jr.; then-Head Executive Assistant Raul Dominic Badilla; then-Head Executive Assistant Israel Pargas; then-Corporate Legal Counsel Angelito Grande;

Then-Attorney IV, Office of the Corporate Legal Counsel, Atty. Lawrence Mijares; and, then-acting senior manager of the Human Resource Department Leila Tuazon.

The suspensions however, did not include incumbent PhilHealth president, Ricardo Morales, who is also under pressure to resign.

PhilHealth, for its part, declined to comment, claiming it has yet to receive a copy of the OMB decisions.

Also, the OMB was not clear as to what cases pending before it was behind the suspension orders.

However, in August 2019, before he reassumed the post as presidential spokesperson, Atty. Harry Roque, had filed several cases at the Ombudsman against PhilHealth officials over their decision to ignore a ruling by the Court of Appeals suspending a hospital in Cebu.

Roque also last February again filed another complaint at the OMB alleging failure to act on complaints on the proliferation of fake PhilHealth receipts that mostly victimized Filipino overseas workers (OFWs).

The OMB decision came out the same day the Senate unanimously approved Resolution 502 calling on Pres. Duterte to suspend PhilHealth executives, Morales included, authored by Majority Leader, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri.

“Allowing these PhilHealth officials to remain in office may give them time to tamper with, conceal or destroy important records, and further hamper the investigations of the NBI, CoA, the Ombudsman and other investigative bodies conducting investigations on PhilHealth,” Zubiri told the media.

A resource person from the Commission on Audit (CoA), Director Cleotilde Tuazon, also revealed during last week’s Senate probe that PhilHealth officials had also refused to handover to them documents for them conduct auditing “in time.”

CoA was likewise denied “full access” to agency records such as contracts and bidding documents.