Gordon: PhilHealth should listen to OCTA, settle its debts to Red Cross

Philippine Red Cross chairman and Senator Richard Gordon on Tuesday said the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) should realize the dangerous impact of its unsettled P1-billion debt to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) in terms of detecting COVID-19 infections in the country.

This was the senator's response to the  OCTA research group's observation that the impasse between PhilHealth and the PRC caused a 40- to 50-percent drop in reported COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna and Batangas.

"Coming from the UP, that's a very important observation that should be heard by PhilHealth," Gordon said in an online interview.

"These guys [in PhilHealth] are living in a bubble. They are living in a vacuum. They don't know that what they are doing is causing repercussions," he added.

Gordon lamented that the state health insurer has not released any payment yet to the PRC as of Tuesday afternoon despite its previous commitment to do so on Monday.

The delayed payment has put a chartered flight of the PRC to China for the procurement of COVID-19 test kits on hold.

The humanitarian organization has processed more than 943,000 out of the over two million COVID-19 tests conducted in Metro Manila alone, Gordon said.

The senator said the PRC's hands are tied because it needs the full payment of the PhilHealth before it can resume accommodating the returning overseas Filipino workers, health workers, and those referred to mega swabbing facilities, among others who are covered by PhilHealth.

"Wala tayong pambili [ng test kits]. I cannot use money allocated for blood. I cannot use money allocated for disasters," Gordon said.

"I feel like a caged lion right now. I worry for our people tremendously. I lose sleep over it. Di ako nakakatulog because of this—not because I'm worried about the Red Cross, Red Cross will survive... I worry about the people, I worry about our economy," he added.

The outstanding P1.1 billion debt of the PhilHealth to Red Cross is equivalent to 303,000 COVID-19 tests conducted from September 1 up to mid-October.

The PRC stopped processing PhilHealth-funded tests on October 14 due to this unsettled debt. — BM, GMA News