Morales says no large-scale collusion to defraud PhilHealth

Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) president and chief executive officer Ricardo Morales on Monday denied corruption allegations, as he said there are no large-scale collusion efforts to defraud the corporation.

In a virtual briefing on Monday, Morales responded to corruption allegations made before him and officials of PhilHealth, citing a recent report of the Commission on Audit (COA).

"Noong pumasok ako dito, 'yung issue na 'yan was already in existence lalo na 'yang P154 billion na nawawala daw na pondo," he said during the Laging Handa briefing.

"Recently, we got an opinion from the COA telling us that they could not find, they could not substantiate this P154-billion loss in the financial statements submitted by PhilHealth from 2013 to 2017. In effect, hindi totoong may nawawalang P154 billion," added Morales.

Morales, a retired Army general, was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte to head PhilHealth in June 2019.

Morales confessed, however, that there continue to be inefficiencies in the processing of claims but such issues are already being addressed.

"Sa laki ng number, volume of transactions there, may mga inefficiencies siya but I can assure you that there is no group of people colluding with each other to defraud PhilHealth in this scale reported. Wala," he said.

"Meron tayong mga inefficiencies, merong mali ang pasok ng dokumento, mali ang pag-fillup ng form, but walang syndicate or group of people colluding to defraud the corporation at that scale," added Morales. 

Just last week, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said he would reveal what he claimed were "new anomalies" in PhilHealth, slamming the leadership for their supposed failure to go after corrupt officials.

In response, Morales said Roque is welcome to find a replacement to take over PhilHealth if he thinks the current leadership cannot implement the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law.

Under UHC, all Filipino citizens are automatically enrolled into the National Health Insurance Program —those who have the capacity to pay as direct contributors, and the indigents and senior citizens as indirect contributors and sponsored by the government.

Morales has since recommended postponing the UHC, noting the drop in collections to finance such measure.

On Saturday, Roque advised Morales to be careful with his words and to just implement the law.

Morales said, however, that there he has no issues with Roque: "Ano lang 'yan, let's say, a different frequency but pointing at the same direction." — RSJ, GMA News