PhilHealth suspends own investigation

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is likely to suspend its internal investigation on the alleged anomalies that hound the state insurer.

Ricardo Morales, PhilHealth president and chief executive officer, said they might stop the internal probe to give way to the investigations being conducted by other agencies like the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, Commission on Audit and National Bureau of Investigation. 

“We were conducting an internal probe but it has been overtaken already by events...We might suspend (this) and let us see what will happen with the external investigations,” he told reporters.

Morales admitted he was “putting more faith in the internal probe” because they are the ones doing it but that they have to step aside because “it’s not healthy for the organization to conduct an internal probe while there are external probes ongoing.”           

“We will take a break and go on running the corporation so we can make up to our members.  The day-to-day functions have to continue and we will not subject our employees to double jeopardy,” he noted. 

He said that if the external investigations will eventually not find “what we are looking for, then we will conduct our own probe.”  

PhilHealth has been rocked by accusations, including the alleged P154-million fraudulent claim made by WellMed Dialysis Center and the presence of an alleged “mafia” at the agency as revealed by former PhilHealth president and CEO Roy Ferrer and former board member Roberto Salvador.

The two former officials claimed that eight PhilHealth executives, mostly regional vice presidents, were part of a mafia that was holding influence at the agency. 

But Morales said these accusations were mere “hearsay” and that no sufficient evidence were provided against the officials.

“First and foremost, the term ‘mafia’ did not come from PhilHealth… This so-called mafia have already agreed to be rotated.  I have consulted with them and they agreed they are going to be rotated. Rotation is not a punishment but part of normal operations of any large corporation,” he added.