Duque urged to speak up on P15-B PhilHealth mess

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III should break his silence as regards the P15 billion worth of questionable cash advances that the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation released to some hospitals.

The funds released under the Interim Reimbursement Mechanism went to dialysis centers and hospitals in areas with no high incidence of COVID-19.

Representative Jocelyn Tulfo of ACT-CIS party-list made the call after it was revealed in a House panel inquiry  that the IRM disbursement was riddled by irregularities as alleged by resigned PhilHealth anti-fraud officer Thorrsson Montes Keith.

Duque, in his capacity as Secretary of Health, is as the chairman of the PhilHealth board.

“Congress must find ways to get a statement from the PhilHealth Chairman. If he is incapable of making a simple statement regarding the status of the corporation he is in charge of, then clearly he is no longer fit to act as PhilHealth Chairman,” Tulfo said in a statement.

“We want Health Secretary Duque to come before Congress to be held accountable for the continuing disaster in PhilHealth. We are not fooled by Secretary Duque's demeanor. He has been in and out and in again of PhilHealth,” she added.

GMA News Online have reached out to Duque for comment but he is yet to send a reply as of posting time.

Based on the Commission on Audit records, only P1 billion of the P14 billion advance payment that PhilHealth released to hospitals have been liquidated thus far.

Aside from Keith, Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) Commissioner Greco Belgica also claimed that P2 billion of P3 billion of PhilHealth payouts per week are being exposed to corruption because the agency's IT system has no validation mechanism.