Roque convinced by claims PhilHealth ‘mafia’ stole P15B

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Wednesday the allegation that officials of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) have allegedly stolen some P15 billion in funds appeared to be accurate.

Roque said he was convinced by the claims of former PhilHealth anti-fraud legal officer Thorsson Montes Keith who told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that the officials of the state insurer stole public funds through fraudulent schemes.

“Perhaps he’s giving us an accurate estimate because he is not the only one who says that,” Roque said in an interview with CNN Philippines.

“Someone who is familiar with the pattern of fraud perpetrated in the PhilHealth, I would say that’s convincing because I had another source who said more or less that’s how much money that is being lost annually.”

According to Keith, among the fraudulent schemes being employed are the cash advances, the use of the interim reimbursement mechanism, and the continuous procurement of IT equipment the agency already has.

He also alleged that the "mafia" planned to recover the stolen funds from contributions of the overseas Filipino workers.

PhilHealth president Ricardo Morales had dismissed Keith's accusation of widespread corruption in PhilHealth, noting that Keith started making noise after his application for promotion was rejected as he was unqualified for the position.

Morales, however, admitted that PhilHealth could have lost P10.2 billion in 2019 due to fraud and that the amount could go up to P18 billion by next year should the issue remain unaddressed.

“That’s not something that we can digest and we should never digest. We should never accept that even a single peso is lost through corruption,” Roque said.

The Palace official added that the Universal Health Care Act, which he pushed when he was still a congressman, will not be implemented correctly “unless every single peso that the state invests in PhilHealth is used towards providing the people with free medicine and free health care.”

Aside from the Senate, the House of Representatives, Undersecretary Jesus Melchor Quitain of the Office of the Special Assistant to the President, and the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission also conducted separate investigations on the alleged anomalies in PhilHealth.—AOL, GMA News