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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-9/abad-garin-sm.webp" alt="Janette Garin and Butch Abad" />
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(Janette Garin (top) and Butch Abad)
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The Senate Blue Ribbon committee, in a report, stated that PhilHealth funds diverted to the anomalous multi-billion-peso barangay health center program during the tenure of Iloilo Representative Janette Garin as Department of Health (DOH) secretary ended up as campaign funds for the 2016 presidential election.


The conspiracy among Liberal Party (LP) officials was led by then Department of Budget and Management Secretary Butch Abad who was the strategist of the Yellow party at that time.


The report was the product of extensive hearings which provides a good perspective on the recent findings of corruption, thus establishing the genealogy of evil.

The common denominator in the high-stakes fraud is that these were undertaken through the DoH and had mainly proliferated during the previous regime.


The biggest scandals, which triggered the belief of the mafia that they too can get away with similar plunderous schemes unearthed by Congressional probes were the P8.1 billion Barangay Health Stations (BHS) program and the P3.5 billion Dengvaxia immunization drive.


Both blockbuster projects were signed and delivered by Abad in a single day on 29 December 1985.


The BHS and the Dengvaxia projects were rushed, the Congressional hearings found.


The funding for the BHS project was diverted from allocations to PhilHealth to benefit senior citizens.


Panel chairperson Sen. Richard Gordon said the Dengvaxia purchases from French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Pasteur were rushed since it was made despite the absence of a dengue epidemic then.


The rush happened after Noynoy met with Sanofi Pasteur executives on 1 December 2015. Abad admitted in that hearing that he suggested savings from the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund (MPBF) be used for the Dengvaxia purchases since it would revert to the treasury after 31 December.


Abad claimed the realignment was allowed since what was augmented was the Expanded Program for Immunization, yet the Dengvaxia purchases were not part of the EPI.


Gordon said a total of P14.5 billion worth of MPBF was declared as savings in 2015 for use in projects of various agencies, including the EPI.


The same diversion scheme was used for the BHS. In a House inquiry DoH finance officer Laureano Cruz said the Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) released by Abad for the project did not even have a specific funding source except for a note stating the funds would be obtained from "regular agency fund 2015 GAA."


The bidding was conducted months before the SARO was released based on the findings of the House probe.


Dr. Rio Magpantay, a former vice chairman of the bids and awards committee (BAC), said the notice for the auction of the project was made in July 2015 and the bidding in September 2015.


At the Senate, on the other hand, it was found that the SARO of the Dengvaxia and BHS projects was contained in a single document to apparently facilitate approval.


Documents obtained then by Senator JV Ejercito showed the highest collusion possible in the previous regime.

The origins of the mafia at PhilHealth