MANILA – Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) president and CEO Ricardo Morales and senior vice president for legal sector Rodolfo del Rosario Jr. have resigned on Wednesday.
Morales said in a radio interview on Wednesday morning that he submitted a hard copy of his resignation letter to Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea after being told by President Rodrigo Duterte to resign due to his health condition.
“Para akong nabunutan ng tinik,” Morales said on his resignation. “Malaki ang pasalamat ko sa pangulo natin. He never wavered in his confidence in me. I’m so humbled by his loyalty.”
Morales maintained that there is not “an iota of evidence” that would link him to the alleged irregularities at PhilHealth, specifically with regards to the interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM) and the overpricing of an IT system.
Del Rosario, meanwhile, resigned as the trial by publicity that congressional inquiries on alleged corruption in PhilHealth, coupled with the six-month preventive suspension slapped by the Office of the Ombudsman, put him in so much agony.
“The past days have been so grueling and stressful. The character assassination, trial by publicity, and relentless persecution have left me in so much agony. My six-month suspension was too much to bear,” Del Rosario said in his Facebook post.
“As I cannot afford to be unemployed for the next six months and understanding that the corporation would need an SVP Legal in these trying times, I have tendered my irrevocable resignation effective August 24, 2020. This was a painful decision,” he added.
PhilHealth has been under multiple investigations over its release of P15 billion advance payments to hospitals and health care institutions amid COVID-19 of which only P1 billion was accounted for, alleged overpriced IT project, overpayments of reimbursements to hospitals, among others./PN
