The Commission on Audit was urged Wednesday to conduct a special audit of Philippine Health Insurance Corp.’s financial transactions for the past three years after its president Celestina Ma. Jude dela Serna was sacked by President Rodrigo Duterte over alleged excessive travels and mismanagement of agency funds.
Senior Citizen Party-list Rep. Milagros Aquino-Magsaysay said the special audit of PhilHealth funds was necessary “to uncover all the anomalous policies and transactions the agency has done since 2015 until the present, including the disenfranchisement of millions of seniors from PhilHealth coverage.”
Aquino-Magsaysay, member of the majority bloc of the House committee on health, said the removal of Dela Serna from her post was a welcome development.
“The PhilHealth now has the opportunity to correct the mistakes in recent years, especially against senior citizens,” she said.
Citizens Battle Against Corruption Party-list Rep. Sherwin Tugna and Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves, for their part, hailed President Duterte’s decision to axe Dela Serna.
“She does not deserve to be in public office if the alleged PhilHealth’s mismanagement of funds is proven true,” Tugna said as he joined the call of Aquino-Magsaysay to investigate PhilHealth’s supposed questionable transactions.
“PhilHealth, as a lead agency in providing quality healthcare assistance to Filipinos, should be rid of corrupt officials. It should be led by someone with the necessary technical knowledge in running the agency coupled with a burning passion in serving our countrymen,” said Tugna, chairman of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms.
Teves said the alleged lavish spending was unacceptable especially when “majority of Filipinos cannot afford quality healthcare” because of the poor performance and mismanagement.
“There should be a need to safeguard the finances of PhilHealth as it is the most important element to be able to provide quality healthcare,” said Teves, author of House Resolution 1928.
The resolution seeks a congressional probe into the alleged lavish lifestyle of dela Cerna, including her reported one year stay in a hotel, allegations of massive fraud and operational mismanagement at PhilHealth.
President Duterte earlier ordered an investigation into de la Serna’s travel expenses.
She allegedly spent at least P627,000 for her trips to and from Bohol in 2017.
Similarly, CoA disclosed that Philhealth posted a net loss amounting to P8.92 billion in 2017.
The amount was reportedly adjusted later by the audit agency to a still whopping P4 billion in net loss.
