‘Mafia’ aiding PhilHealth fraud named in Senate probe
Published on: Friday, August 16, 2019
Among the alleged mafiosi identified by a former PhilHealth board member at the Senate hearing were (from right) Masiding Alonto Jr., PhilHealth regional vice president (RVP) for Northern Mindanao; lawyer Jelbert Galicto, RVP for Caraga; Dennis Adre, RVP for Davao; Khaliquzzaman Macabato, RVP for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao; and William Chavez, RVP for Central Visayas.
MANILA: A “mafia” led by the “Mindanao group” of eight senior officials of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) aided hospitals in defrauding the state insurance firm of billions of pesos, two former PhilHealth executives told the Senate on Wednesday.The alleged members of the group did not hide their identities as they faced their accusers at the public hearing jointly presided over by Senators Richard Gordon and Bong Go.
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Dr. Roy Ferrer, former PhilHealth president and CEO, said the mafia had orchestrated the ouster of his predecessors and even former Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial, who was forced to vacate her post after the Commission on Appointments rejected her appointment in October 2017.
Ferrer claimed that the group was behind the fraud schemes that deflated the state agency’s finances over the past several years.
He said he himself had been threatened that he would suffer the fate that befell the three former PhilHealth chiefs appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte.
“Actually, they are being protected. This mafia, I think, is organised,” Ferrer said in reply to questions from Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon.
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Ferrer quit after the President asked top PhilHealth officials to submit their courtesy resignations following an Inquirer series on irregularities in the agency in June.
Asked by Drilon if he was willing to identify the mafiosi, Ferrer said naming them in public might incriminate him.
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He said he had also informed his successor, Ricardo Morales, a retired Army general tasked by the President last month with cleaning up the state health insurance firm, about the group.
“I think we owe it to the public to tell (them) their names,” Drilon told Ferrer.
After some prodding from the senator, Morales said he was made aware that there was such a thing as the Mindanao group.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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