By Fernan Angeles
GONE are the days when the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue lorded over the list of government agencies where corruption allegedly thrives.
No less than the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission chief Greco Belgica hinted at the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation as the become number one on the list of government agencies under probe for massive corruption involving amount dwarfing those of the anomalies in the past.
“For a long time it has been Customs, BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways), DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources), marami hong may resulta doon. Ngayon top-notcher ho ang PhilHealth,” Belgica said in a radio interview.
“We’re happy na every year iniimbestigahan ang PhilHealth pero it is the first time na naging ganito ang resulta — unang-una nakita natin may na-create na task force ang Pangulo to combine all of us investigating bodies,” he added.
Amid the controversy, PhilHealth president and CEO Ricardo Morales resigned on Wednesday after President Rodrigo Duterte said it would be best for him to leave his post due to his unstable health condition.
Aside from Morales, PhilHealth senior vice president for the legal sector Rodolfo del Rosario Jr. announced on social media that he has tendered his irrevocable resignation, saying “character assassination, trial by publicity, and relentless persecution” has left him “in so much agony.”
Belgica, during the interview, said the task force — which includes PACC, Department of Justice, Civil Service Commission, National Bureau of Investigation, Commission on Audit, Office of the Ombudsman, and Anti-Money Laundering Council — is almost done with its investigation.
“Almost finished na kami, mga two weeks na lang siguro po, a little over two [weeks]. Natuwa nga ho kami kasi we’re not even in the middle nagsuspinde na ang Ombudsman [ang ilang PhilHealth officials],” he said.
“We’re seeing na after namin ma-finish ang recommendation… nakakaramdam na tayo ng tagumpay sa adhikain natin na maayos naman ang PhilHealth.”
The Ombudsman slapped 13 incumbent and former officials of PhilHealth with six-month preventive suspension last week.
PhilHealth, on the other hand, clarified that the suspension was not related to the recent investigations by the Senate and the House of Representatives, but stemmed from administrative cases filed against them between 2017 to 2019.