MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte’s high regard for Health secretary Francisco Duque III will not affect the investigation of the Department of Justice (DOJ) over the alleged irregularities within the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
Justice secretary Menardo Guevarra, head of the DOJ’s inter-agency task force investigating the matter, said their probe will solely be based on evidence.
“We have to go by the evidence only and nothing further. Iyan lang ang pagbabasehan ng DOJ prosecutors, for example, or investigators when they make a resolution,” Guevarra said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.
“I intend to apply the same standard in this task being given to Task Force PhilHealth,” he added.
During his public address on Monday, President Duterte once again defended Duque even after a Senate committee recommended the filing of criminal charges against the Health chief over the alleged “improper and illegal implementation” of the state insurer’s Interim Reimbursement Mechanism, “malversation of public funds” and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
According to Guevarra, President Duterte said that “in the context of issues on corruption.”
“In other words, as far as Mr. Duterte is concerned, kung mayroong issue of corruption, mawawala sigurado ang trust niya doon sa person na iyon,” he said.
“Pero kung hindi naman corruption ang issue against one of his officials or Cabinet secretaries, then probably, he’ll be more lenient,” Guevarra added.
The PhilHealth task force is set to submit its findings to President Duterte on September 14, in time for a 30-day deadline to complete its probe./PN
