Ombudsman suspension of officials unrelated to probes —PhilHealth

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation on Saturday said that the six-month preventive suspension order against 13 of its officials did not stem from the hearings conducted by the Congress on the alleged corruption in the agency.

“We also wish to clarify that the preventive suspension orders recently issued by the Ombudsman to some of its current and former officers is not in any way connected with the on-going hearings in both houses of Congress regarding the above-mentioned alleged corruption,” PhilHealth said.

“The Ombudsman order stemmed from the complaints of ‘grave misconduct, oppression and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service’ filed by some regional officers in connection to the administrative cases filed against them between 2017 to 2019,” it added. 

On Wednesday, Ombudsman Samuel Martires slapped six-month preventive suspension against top officials of PhilHealth. 

Philhealth officials ordered suspended include:

• Dennis Mas, Senior Vice President, Management Services Sector
• Shirley Domingo, Vice President, Corporate Affairs Group
• Rodolfo del Rosario, Jr., Senior Vice President
• Leila Tuazon, Acting Senior Manager Operations, Audit Department
• Clementine Bautista, Vice President, Quality Assurance Group
• Roy Ferrer
• Celestina Ma. Jude dela Serna
• Raul Dominic Badilla
• Israel Pargas
• Angelito Grande
• Lawrence Mijares
• Eugenio Donatos II
• Ruben Basa

“Amidst all of these, PhilHealth reiterates its commitment to fully cooperate with all the investigating authorities,” the state insurer said.

“PhilHealth assures the public that members can continue to avail of their health insurance benefits as normal through the PhilHealth accredited Healthcare facilities especially during this time of the pandemic despite the recent suspensions of some senior officers and the ongoing Senate and Congressional hearings regarding allegations of corruption,” it said. —LBG, GMA News