Duterte agrees to assign Finance chief as chair of PhilHealth board —Sotto

Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Wednesday said President Rodrigo Duterte agrees with his proposal to amend the Universal Health Care Act to revamp the leadership of the PhilHealth board of directors.

Sotto filed a bill on Monday seeking to designate the Finance Secretary as the ex-officio chair of the board, instead of the Health Secretary.

"I just talked to PRRD, he agrees!" the Senate leader said on Twitter.

Sotto's amendatory measure states that "since one of PhilHealth's critical mandates is to have a sustainable fund management to ensure the continuous delivery of health care services," the Finance chief would be more fit to lead its board.

The Health Secretary shall remain a member "to provide necessary linkage" between the Department of Health and the state insurer.

Sotto filed the bill on the heels of the Senate's investigation on the alleged anomalies in PhilHealth.

The Senate report produced from the said probe last month recommended that Health Secretary Franciso Duque III be included on the list of personalities to be filed charges over the alleged improper implementation of PhilHealth's interim reimbursement mechanism.

The Justice Department-led task force, however, did not implicate the latter in its submission of initial findings to President Rodrigo Duterte—leaving Sotto "dumbfounded."

Duque denied having any hand in the implementation of IRM, saying he was not even a "voting chairman" of the board.

But Sotto maintained that Duque's "negligence" still counts as an offense under Article 217 of the Revised Penal Code. — BM, GMA News