Abad denies diverting P10.6-billion PhilHealth fund

Former Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad on Tuesday said the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s recommendation to file criminal charges against him are “baseless, built on nothing but unfounded accusations.”

Senator Richard Gordon earlier alleged that Abad, former Health Secretary Janette Garin and former Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) president and CEO Alexander Padilla diverted P10.6 billion of PhilHealth funds to construct barangay health centers and procure dental trucks which supposedly had not been utilized at all.

Gordon said the funds were meant for the PhilHealth premiums of senior citizens.

The committee then recommended that all three former officials be charged for violating ethical standards for public officials and employees.

In a statement, Abad said the basis of the charges against him “is a brazen lie.”

“In the first place, there was no P10.6-billion budget to speak of. Not in the 2015 (General Appropriations Act), not anywhere. How could funds be diverted if they were not in the budget to start with?” he said.

“What is in fact true is that PhilHealth applied for funding for the payment of Senior Citizen premiums under the Unprogrammed Fund of GAA 2015. But this source had no funds, since no new or additional sources of revenues were available. For this reason, in 2015, no item of this nature was funded under the Unprogrammed Fund,” he added.

Abad also said the P9.39 billion released for the Health Facilities Enhancement Program for barangay health stations, rural and urban health centers and dental equipment came from savings from unused personnel funds from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefit Fund.

The use of the said savings was authorized under the 2015 GAA and was approved by the Office of the President, he added.

Abad also said he was not mentioned in the 39-page executive summary of the committee report aside from the part in which charges were recommended against him.

“Gordon suddenly dragged my name in. That’s laughable magic: no facts stipulated, no violations soundly alleged, but a recommendation nonetheless to file charges against me,” he said.

Moreover, Abad said he was not given an opportunity to explain his side and finds the release of the report “maliciously timed to confuse the public and distract them from the real PhilHealth scandal that Gordon should be investigating.”

The committee report is a product of the Senate hearings last year regarding alleged irregularities in PhilHealth.

In 2018, Garin denied the allegations that she requested the Department of Budget and Management to divert the P10.6 billion fund from what was allocated for senior citizens' premiums.

Padilla, meanwhile, said the DBM did not grant the request. — BM, GMA News