MANILA – The failure of some officials of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to attend in the second hearing of the Senate would be their loss, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said.
According to Lacson, PhilHealth chief Ricardo Morales and executive vice president Arnel De Jesus will lost their opportunity to respond to new issues to be brought up by resource persons and some new incriminating documents in his possession.
“Ang alam ko, may mga bagong sasabihin ang mga resource persons. Tapos may bago kaming documents na medyo incriminating. So kung di nila ito masasagot during the hearing, it’s their loss,” Lacson said in an interview with DWIZ over the weekend.
Morales earlier sent a medical certificate to the Senate Committee of the Whole on Friday, informing he was undergoing treatment for lymphoma, cancer of the lymph nodes, and has been advised by his doctors to take a leave of absence.
De Jesus, for his part, also excused himself as he has been admitted in a private hospital since August 5 after being diagnosed with different cardiovascular diseases and needs a surgery.
“Irerespeto natin advice ng doctor nila. Hindi natin sila pwedeng sisihin kasi valid ang kanilang reason,” Lacson said.
A resigned officer and a concurrent official of PhilHealth made serious corruption allegations against top executives of the agency during the first day of Senate inquiry last week.
Among the allegations revealed is that its senior executives of the state-run agency have stolen some P15 billion from the agency using different fraudulent schemes. PhilHealth refuted the accusation./PN
