PhilHealth execom is 'real, bad' mafia, says regional VP

PhilHealth regional vice president Dennis Adre on Tuesday supported the claim that the incumbent executive committee of the state health insurer is the "mafia" behind several alleged irregularities.

"In the previous Senate hearings, Board member Alejandro Cabading and Atty. [Thorrsson Montes] Keith categorically stated that the execom is operating as a mafia. I support their allegations," Adre told senators in the continuation of the upper chamber's inquiry.

"In the past weeks we have witnessed defensive justification and connivance of execom to cover up the anomalies that we have uncovered," he added.

The regional vice president alleged that Philhealth senior vice president Rodolfo del Rosario has repeatedly been lying in the hearings of both houses of Congress.

Adre was part of the "Mindanao group" who had been tagged last year as the mafia within PhilHealth.

Yet, Senate witnesses argued that this group are actually the "good guys," providing information about the alleged irregularities.

"If we are to be called mafia for questioning fraud policies and illegal orders or exposing irregularities, then so be it but we are the good mafia and they are the real and bad mafia," Adre said, referring to the execom.

Members of the PhilHealth execom are present in the same hearing but they have yet to respond to the allegation.

Meanwhile, Senate President Vicente Sotto III announced in the ongoing inquiry that PhilHealth chief Ricardo Morales and executive vice president Arnel De Jesus had notified him that they will not be able to participate in the Senate hearing even virtually. Both their names were read earlier by the secretariat from the list of resource persons who confirmed attendance.

Morales told Sotto he was on medical leave while De Jesus mentioned a follow-up check up.—AOL, GMA News