<div class="image-full-width">
<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-9/paras-philhealth-sm.webp" alt="Jing Paras" />
<div>
(Jacinto "Jing" Paras)
</div>
</div>
<p>
Former PhilHealth board member Jacinto "Jing" Paras disclosed the fund leakages even as he confirmed the existence of two sets of mafias in collision over the control of the funds, which the Senate and the House of Representatives have exposed in separate probes.
</p>
<p>
Paras made the observation when he served the PhilHealth board for two years as a representative of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
</p>
<p>
He was Labor Undersecretary before his appointment as presidential legislative assistant under the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office on January 8 this year. Paras was once a member of the House as Representative of the First District of Negros Occidental.
</p>


<p>
His transfer to the PLLO was not without controversy as Paras admitted that he was the <i>"cobra"</i> Labor Secretary had referred to after his report on corruption involving DOLE officials in cahoots with the recruitment agencies.
</p>
<p>
He lost his PhilHealth slot after he was booted out of the DOLE. But he is not staying silent.
</p>
<p>
Paras presented Daily Tribune with documents to prove his allegations.  Paras said:
</p>
<div class="article-comment">
<p>
"That's how much money was leaking out of the PhilHealth - some P50 billion a year."
</p>
</div>
<p>
The former lawmaker claimed the mafias operating in the agency consisted of the regional vice presidents in collision with their national hierarchy up to the Department of Health (DOH) leadership.  Paras said:
</p>
<div class="article-comment">
<p>
"This money supposedly funded the Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) - a special privilege for the provision substantial aid to eligible health care institutions, and the cataract and pneumonia cases.
</p>
<p>
"That WellMed Dialysis Center scam was just the tip of the iceberg."
</p>
</div>
<p>
The WellMed case stemmed from claims that the small health care facility in Novaliches charged the state insurer for dialysis claims of dead PhilHealth members.
</p>
<p>
Paras said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who also once led PhilHealth, was <i>"in control of everything in PhilHealth."</i>
</p>
<p>
The WellMed case had prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to infuse a <i>"strong, new leadership"</i> in the agency last year. He named former 404th Philippine Army brigade commander Gen. Ricardo Morales as PhilHealth president and CEO <i>"to cleanse and institute reforms within the agency."</i>
</p>
<p>
Paras has charged:
</p>
<div class="article-comment">
<p>
"But Morales is Duque's implementor." 
</p>
</div>
<p>
Paras said the Congress <i>"should come up with new implementing rules to change the PhilHealth."</i>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<div class="article-comment">
<p>
"The PhilHealth should be abolished." 
</p>
</div>
<p>
Paras' call echoed that of Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo who, on Wednesday, filed House Bill 7429 which seeks to allow President Duterte to privatize the entire state-run health insurance firm within a year.
</p>
<p>
Malacañang, however, expressed its disapproval to the bill, with presidential spokesman Harry Roque saying: 
</p>
<div class="article-comment">
<p>
"It runs counter to our objective (to provide health care). That's the responsibility of the government that should be done."
</p>
<p>
"Health is a right for citizens and it is the obligation of the state. If you give it to private companies, that's merely insurance,"
</p>
<p>
"We have seen that the scheme of insurance is not working in other countries - such as the United States - since the poor cannot afford to pay for their insurance."
</p>
</div>
<p>
Meanwhile, Senator Richard Gordon on Thursday, August 20, 2020, alleged that the PhilHealth has paid for 55 percent more pneumonia cases than the recorded pneumonia cases of the DOH.
</p>
<p>
This, he said, proves the consistent overpaying transactions between the insurance agency and its favored hospitals:
</p>
<div class="article-comment">
<p>
"According to the DOH, there are about 450,000 pneumonia cases in the entire country and yet the PhilHealth has paid for 707,133 pneumonia cases." 
</p>
</div>
<p>
There is a disparity of 253,133, the senator underscored. Gordon said:
</p>
<div class="article-comment">
<p>
"There are 6-out-of-10 people who will die without seeing a doctor. If PhilHealth's money will be used for their political interests, the people will lose their sense of security that when they go to the hospital, they know they can pay."
</p>
</div>
<p>
The lawmaker suggested that the agency's spendings must be monitored weekly to see possible patterns in its transactions.
</p>
<p>
He proposed the creation of a database system recording the mortalities in the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) which PhilHealth and other government agencies can access.
</p>
<div class="article-comment">
<p>
"The PSA should create an online mortality verification system so PhilHealth will no longer pay for the medical services allegedly acquired by dead patients."
</p>
<p>
"There should also be a board of eminent supervisors to oversee PhilHealth."
</p>
</div>


PhilHealth leaking P50B a year; Two sets of mafias in collision over the control of the funds