Roque's claims vs. PhilHealth IT dep't acted upon already —exec

An official at the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) on Sunday claimed that the accusation lawyer Harry Roque was claiming over anomalous remittances to the agency has already been acted upon ever since it was discovered in 2012.

In an interview on Dobol B sa News TV, Atty. Rodolfo Del Rosario, senior vice president at PhilHealth who also headed its Information Technology (IT) Management Department, responded to Roque's claim of a "modus" where a private employer supposedly remitted to the agency about P100 million through a bank but the money never actually reached the state health insurer.

Roque claimed that the PhilHealth's IT department was responsible for the non-remittance of the money to the agency.

According to Del Rosario, such an incident is what they call "fictitious crediting or contribution."

"Ibig sabihin, wala namang aktuwal na naibayad sa bangko pero pagdating sa PhilHealth database, pinasok 'yung PhilHealth database at minodify siya," he said.

"Meron doon nilagay na payment nung naturang employer, pero sa totoo, walang nangyaring pagbabayad, at ito ay ginawa nang ilang beses," he added.

Del Rosario said such fraud was already discovered back when he was the head of the IT department.

"Una, totoong nangyari 'yang fictitious crediting dahil 'yung database ng PhilHealth ay binago, pinalabas na merong bayad ang isang employer na sa totoo ay walang bayad. Ginawa nila 'yan on a regular basis. Nag-accumulate 'yan e. 'Yung total amount niyan ay mahigit P100 milyon," he said.

"Nung tayo ay nag-assume as head ng IT, ang iniisip natin ay nabulabog itong mga kung sinong gumagawa ng kalokohan. Nabulabog sila dahil nagkaroon ng bagong pamunuan 'yung naturang departamento, at 'yung isa sa una nating mga utos doon ay i-audit, i-check 'yung proseso at ating mga tao kung paano sila nag-eexecute ng kani-kanilang trabaho," he added.

Del Rosario said charges were filed against those involved in the fraudulent act, and they were even dismissed from service.

"I was informed that some of the respondents were actually dismissed from the service. Ang alam ko ring impormasyon, that particular amount of money, itong naturang employer ay binayaran niya. P114 million 'yan [in total]," he said.

"I have not seen the documents but I was informed there was a restitution of that amount. PhilHealth was able to collect that amount from the employer," he added.

Roque has served as the legal counsel of two former employees who disclosed the alleged "ghost dialysis" scam of WellMed Dialysis Center which supposedly benefited from PhilHealth claims of deceased patients. —Erwin Colcol/KG, GMA News