Health Secretary Francisco Duque III faced questioning during the Senate hearing on Tuesday regarding the alleged anomalies within the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) which he served for almost two decades.
PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales and Concurrent Executive Vice President Arnel de Jesus were absent in the inquiry due to certain medical conditions.
One of the witnesses claimed that Duque is the godfather of the alleged PhilHealth “mafia.”
“Maituturing ko po na siya po ang godfather po ng mafia (I consider him as the godfather of the mafia) … Siya po ang chairman po, Ma’am. As a chairman mayroon pong due diligence na gagawin ang isang chairman and considering he is a doctor and mayroon siyang institutional knowledge (He is the chairman and has due diligence, and considering he is a doctor, he has institutional knowledge),” Atty. Thorrsson Montes Keith stated.
PhilHealth Regional Vice President Dennis Adre also mentioned the “Plan 5 Million” during the 2004 elections.
“Iyon pong plan 5 million, ni-launch ni former President and CEO Duque noong election noong 2004 noon pong may survey na the late FPJ ay nangunguna ng 5 million votes sa survey. Kaya po 5 million rin ang pinamigay na cards ng PhilHealth na libre (The 5 million plan was launched by former President and CEO Duque during the 2004 elections when there was a survey that the late FPJ was leading by 5 million votes. That’s why 5 million PhilHealth cards were given for free)… Iyon po ang unang dahilan ng pagkalugi ng PhilHealth (That’s the first reason behind PhilHealth’s losses),” Adre disclosed.
Adre added that “one of the specific instances” he can recall is “the instruction not to give then Mayor Duterte his share of the cards because Mayor Duterte does not belong to their party.”
Duque denied the allegations and said “the 5M was distributed based on the EO of President GMA.”
“And so there is no correlation between PhilHealth programs and elections cases were filed against us and they were all dismissed,” Duque said in defense. – Report from Eunice Samonte
