Filtered By: Topstories
News

Ex-PhilHealth chief: No diversion, P10.6-B fund request was never granted


 

Former PhilHealth president Alexander Padilla on Thursday denied that P10.6 billion in PhilHealth fund intended for senior citizens was illegally diverted to the Department of Health (DOH) in 2015.

Though he admitted that PhilHealth requested for the amount from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) — as shown by the letter presented to the media by Health Secretary Francisco Duque on Wednesday — Padilla said the DBM did not grant the request.

"Ang pinapakita lamang nila ay ang letter request na ginawa namin ni [ex-Health Secretary Janette] Garin asking for P10.6 billion. Ngunit itong request na 'to was never granted by DBM," Padilla said in an interview on News To Go.

"Hindi ito pinayagan ng DBM. In fact meron akong subsequent letters nung December of that same year requesting for the same amount na maibigay sa PhilHealth dahil galing 'yan sa sin taxes," he added.

Duque had said that the letter is "evidence by itself" that the P10.6 billion fund for the expanded Senior Citizens Act was diverted from its original use.

Duque said Garin and Padilla wanted the fund to be used instead for the construction of rural health units.

Padilla said according to the DBM, the funds allocated for health infrastructure should be taken from savings from the Mutual Benefit Funds and not from PhilHealth. He added that the bidding and procurement was conducted by the Department of Health (DOH).

"Ang sinasabi nilang ginamit na pondo para sa health infrastructure ay nanggaling, ito ay ayon sa DBM, ay nanggaling sa savings from the Mutual Benefit Funds. Yun po ang ginamit na para sa DOH. So ang PhilHealth wala rin namang kinalaman dun. Ang bidding and procurement ay sa DOH mismo. So wala hong pondo natanggap ang PhilHealth para ma-divert dahil hindi nangyari yun," he said.

He added that by law, senior citizens are covered by PhilHealth, which was the context for the request for the fund.

"Walang nape-prejudice na senior citizens dahil by law, covered ho ang senior citizens, whether indigent or hindi," he said.

"Pinag-aralan ng DBM. Kung papayagan ng DBM wala tayong problema. Kung hindi naman papayagan wala ring problema, sisingilin lang sila paulit-ulit ng PhilHealth, which I did subsequently," Padilla added.

Meanwhile, Duque said the DOH and PhilHealth are making moves to get the P10.6-billion fund back.

"We'll await for what the DBM will say," he said. "I think we will include this in the 2019 budget. We need to recover it... because, again, this will influence the long-term sustainability of the system." —KBK, GMA News

 

Tags: philhealth
LOADING CONTENT