Palace apologizes to Philippine Red Cross over PhilHealth’s unpaid debt

Malacañang on Thursday apologized to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) after the organization halted COVID-19 tests chargeable to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) due to the state insurer’s unpaid debt.

“One fourth of our total [number of] tests were done by PRC. So, malaking kawalan po iyan kung ititigil nila ang testing for PhilHealth,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque told a news conference, noting the PRC had already conducted one million tests.

“Ako naman po ay kampante na mayroon lang talagang mga internal [na] problema ngayon ang PhilHealth na alam naman nating lahat. Humihingi po ako ng pasensiya sa PRC on behalf of the President,” he said.

PRC said in a statement that it will not resume testing until PhilHealth settles its outstanding balance of P930.99 million, adding the last payment was made on September 8 or more than a month ago.

Roque vowed to raise the issue with PhilHealth chief Dante Gierran, who was mandated by President Rodrigo Duterte to address the alleged irregularities in the agency.

Under the PRC and PhilHealth’s memorandum of agreement (MOA), PRC said a revolving fund of P100 million was supposed to be replenished immediately after it had been depleted.

National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said Gierran had asked the comment of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) regarding the agreement which was signed during the time of former PhilHealth president Ricardo Morales.

“Sa ngayon lang po parang humihingi lang po ng comment sa DBM for the purpose na para at least clear po iyong napirmahan sa MOA, kasi po nag-change po iyong mga tinatawag nating mga prices. And the new president of the PhilHealth just wanted to make sure na all is in order,” Galvez said.

“I do hope that the problem will be resolved because our goal is to have more people tested rather than less,” added Roque.

In the meantime, Galvez said there are other laboratories in the country that are capable of conducting COVID-19 tests.

“I believe iyong magiging major consequence ng pagtigil po ng Red Cross is only for the OFW (overseas Filipino workers),” he said.

“Pero iyong testing po ng mga first contact at saka second contact, may mga testing laboratory na po ang ating mga LGUs (local government units), at saka mayroon na po silang tinatawag na contract with civilian testing centers.”

The Philippines has so far tested 4,012,853 individuals, according to a report by the Department of Health on Thursday.—AOL, GMA News