Gierran given until end of 2020 to ‘clean up’ PhilHealth — Palace

President Rodrigo Duterte has directed Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) chief Dante Gierran to rid the agency of corruption by the end of the year, Malacañang said Thursday.

Gierran, a former director of the National Bureau of Investigation, was appointed to the post only this month.

“The deadline given to Attorney Gierran is a deadline to clean up the organization. File all the cases that need to be filed, suspend, terminate, whatever you need to do in order to cleanse the ranks of PhilHealth,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a televised briefing.

“Hindi naman po ibig sabihin na ang termino niya ay hanggang doon lamang.”

Gierran earlier vowed to address corruption within PhilHealth within two years.

"Sigurado 'yan, kakayanin. Kakayanin ko talaga 'yan," Gierran had said.

File charges

Early this week, the President approved the recommendation of an inter-agency task force to file charges against resigned PhilHealth chief Ricardo Morales and other executives over anomalies in the state insurer.

Task Force PhilHealth has flagged anomalies in the approval and implementation of PhilHealth's Interim Reimbursement Mechanism, the procurement of ICT equipment, and policies in holding erring employees and healthcare institutions accountable.

More people may face prosecution as the investigations continue, the Department of Justice had said.

Duterte has expressed openness to the idea of privatizing or abolishing PhilHealth following allegations of corruption in the state health insurer.

However, Senate President Vicente Sotto III told the President in a meeting with congressional leaders on Wednesday that “it might be better to wait a few months and see how the new administration performs.”

Sotto also said the President agreed to his proposal to have the Secretary of the Department of Finance to head the PhilHealth Board instead of the Secretary of the Department of Health.

The Senate leader’s proposal 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. 

“It depends on the wisdom of Congress, if they feel that the legislative basis for the existence of PhilHealth should be amended, so be it, the President will respect that,” Roque said. — RSJ, GMA News