More conflict of interest? Duque ready to face probe

MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Francisco Duque III yesterday denied the allegations of Sen. Panfilo Lacson that he is involved in corruption at the Department of Health and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), which is chaired by the DOH chief.

As Lacson bared more instances of alleged conflict of interest involving Duque, the DOH chief said he is ready to face a Senate probe.

In a privilege speech yesterday, Lacson bared more corruption schemes at the DOH and PhilHealth that he said were all caused by greed and arrogance of some of its top officials.

“Embattled Secretary Francisco Duque must rid himself of conflict of interest and put the interest of the people above everybody else,” Lacson said, adding that more anomalies linked to him and his family are being uncovered at the DOH and PhilHealth.

Duque told The STAR that he divested from the family-owned Doctors Pharmaceuticals Inc. (DPI) in 2006 and he has documents to prove this.

“There is no conflict of interest because the law requires that a secretary of health... who owns some shares in a pharmaceutical company, needs to divest. Pharmaceutical companies are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration kaya kailangan talaga mag divest (so there’s really need to divest),” he said.

On the issue that DPI had bagged contracts from the DOH in April and August 2017, he noted he was not yet health secretary at the time.

“I just want to answer all issues as objectively and as factually as I can. Nothing personal. Just as a professional I will refer to my documents,” Duque said.

He added that he is willing to initiate talks with Lacson to resolve the issues.

“Amid these shenanigans, it behooves public servants, let alone the secretary of health, to rid himself of conflict of interest… Nothing else will suffice. Falling short of this will compromise his office, principles and integrity,” Lacson said.

“Finally, I say with no reservation: corrupt public officials have no place on earth. But corrupt officials stealing health funds deserve an upgraded and super special suite in hell,” he said.

The senator lamented that PhilHealth was “bleeding dry” based on reports from the Commission on Audit (COA) despite its relatively good collection rate because of some suspicious and corruption-prone disbursement schemes, including the All Case Rates (ACR) system.

From 2013 to 2017, the net operating income of PhilHealth continued to be at the negative level: P5 billion in 2013; P1.8 billion in 2014; P5.7 billion in 2015; P6.1 billion in 2016; and P10.5 billion in 2017, he said. – Paolo Romero