Band of bad brothers

Why would a bunch of middle managers or regional directors in government choose to stay in the same position year after year for nearly 20 years without asking or working for promotions along with the salary increases that go with it? This defies logic and is tantamount to financial suicide unless there is money to be made in other forms. How have the same lot managed to stay rooted in their chosen turf even if the usual practice in the Civil Service as well as government owned and controlled corporations is for officers to be rotated or transferred to other positions every 3 to 5 years at the most? Why is it that every time attempts are made to rotate, transfer or investigate wrongdoing in certain regions of this government agency, we immediately read or hear about accusations of incompetence or wrongdoing allegedly committed by officials at their central office? 

Apparently those days are over as far as an “internal affairs team” of PhilHealth are concerned.  Yes the agency or GOCC I was referring to above is none other than the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and the problems or issues I wrote down is 20 years worth of headaches suffered by past administrations and leadership of both the DOH and PhilHealth. It seems that a “band of brothers” had the good fortune of being hired or appointed to be the pioneer officials of PhilHealth some 20 years ago. They managed to do this through the blessing of an older brod who has since passed away and probably never realized that his brods would establish themselves in the agency to the point of being immovable or irremovable from office. 

Many attempts have reportedly been made by past administrators of PhilHealth to reassign, transfer or investigate specific members of the band of brothers to other regions concerning poor collection performance, processing fraudulent claims, failure to process claims that date back to 2013/2014, false reporting or entry where it was made to appear that a call center had paid its P100 million contribution/liability when in fact no actual payment had been submitted. I learned that at least two affidavits had been made by officers of hospitals claiming that one of the brods had received some sort of “retainer” from them, while one or two others were engaged in the supply or owned pharmaceutical outlets supplying PhilHealth accredited hospitals. One brod reportedly submitted fraudulent academic records claiming to be a graduate but did not actually graduate until after one or two years later.

With 20 years worth of offenses as well as poor performance, the band of brothers managed to stay in place because of their connection to the deceased Senator whose name they apparently used in vain, or misinformed by throwing mud at every new president or directors of PhilHealth. It seems that with the elder brod’s passing away, the operators have reached out to a re-electionist Senator or his staff to arrange a “consultative meeting.” I know the re-electionist to be a man of integrity but someone may be misleading him to the point of being used in exchange for campaigners in Mindanao, Cebu and Batangas!  All you have to do is Google controversies about PhilHealth and the curious pattern appears that whenever a new PhilHealth president comes in to introduce changes or reforms the agency gets attacked even if the leadership is new on the job. All along we in media suspected that the enemies of PhilHealth were fraudulent doctors and hospital owners whose rackets and false claims were slashed away by various administrators and directors. But as the pattern became obvious, it became clearer that it has already been a 20-year inside job. 

With the coming of the Duterte administration many veteran PhilHealth officers had hoped that the Mindanao Mafia would find fear of DU30 and quit but instead they once again resorted to their politics and dirty tricks approach and swift dispatched of the previous PhilHealth lady president “Inday” dela Serna. But instead of striking fear in the hearts of career officials and higher ups, the ousting of Dela Serna made people in the agency realize that the band of brothers had to be exposed, charged and run out of PhilHealth Mindanao, Cebu and Batangas to protect the agency, career executives as well as the members of PhilHealth.

In order to do this, the “internal affairs” people at PhilHealth were instructed by a high-ranking government official to consult with the NBI for case build up. DOH Secretary Francisco Duque who sits as chairman of the board at PhilHealth has no choice but to go public and meet up with Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Civil Service Commission to form a powerful investigating panel so that certain lawmakers who have repeatedly lawyered for the band of brothers will have second thoughts about being “gawa gulo” or troublemakers out to distract or derail legitimate investigations or mandatory reassignments of the nefarious “braders.” It might also be a good idea for the new leadership at PhilHealth to meet with Secretary Bong Go so that the latter may be able to appraise President Duterte concerning the politically protected corruption in his turf. Apparently, when the former chief of PhilHealth was under fire, she was called into a meeting by a once powerful Congressman who berated Inday Dela Serna in the presence of the band of brothers whom she also wanted to disband! Another regional director constantly taps into the protection of a Muslim Congressman kamag-anak.

Just like in a movie, the Band of Brothers in PhilHealth must come to…THE END.

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