FORMER health secretary and now Iloilo Rep. Janet Garin yesterday slammed Sen. Richard Gordon after the Senate Blue Ribbon committee which he chairs recommended the filing of plunder and violation of the Graft and Corrupt Practices Act against her, saying the senator has an axe to grind against her for being a member of the Aquino cabinet.
“I will describe Gordon’s report as a big joke,” Garin told reporters in an online press conference, questioning the timing of the panel’s recommendation and even belting out her rendition of Ogie Alcasid’s “Bakit Ngayon Ka lang?”
“I see no point on wasting my time on recycled, baseless accusations aimed at diverting the real issues. Falsified and twisted statements from Gordon is not new to me,” Garin said.
The panel report wants Garin charged for diverting some P10.6 billion funds intended for premiums of senior citizens in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp (PhilHealth), to the construction of DOH projects in 2015. Also recommended for filing of the same charges were Former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and Alexander Padilla, former PhilHealth president and CEO.
Padilla called the allegation of fund diversion an “outright lie.”
“I have not read nor have I been furnished the report of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee. But if reports are true, let me categorically state that the charge leveled against me for fund diversion is patently false, an outright lie.
The so-called P10.6B fund intended for payment of senior citizens’ premiums never happened. No such funds were allocated in the 2015 GAA (General Appropriations Act) or at anytime when I was then president/CEO of PhilHealth. It is impossible to divert any fund that doesn’t exist. While PhilHealth may have requested at the time for the payment for the premiums of senior citizens in order for it to augment its coffers, the request was never granted and the allocation never given,” he said in a statement.
He added: “I think a simple perusal of the budget allocations for PhilHealth and DOH during those years would reveal these simple truths. Further, for even simple decency, observance of common courtesy and due process, I was never asked to appear, explain or comment on these baseless allegations at anytime in the entire duration of this investigation.
“It is indeed unfortunate that political grandstanding in our country has sunk to an all time low where lies are passed off as truth and facts exchanged for fiction. I am certainly innocent of these malicious accusations and intend to prove the same at anytime, any place and at whatever forum.”
Garin insisted the issue had long been answered but Gordon allegedly kept on using his position to “demonize” her.
Garin said the budget under question was part of the unprogrammed funds in the 2015 General Appropriations Act which can only be released under a certain condition.
She cited Section 12 of the special provision of the GAA which “provides a share of the DOH on sin taxes when the target for tax collection is actually collected.”
Had the target been reached, she said, the DOH could have requested the budget to implement the Universal Health Care Law, including Millennium Development Goals, health awareness programs, medical assistance and health enhancement facilities.
“Target however was not reached, hence no such appropriation was released. This is very clear even in the internal investigation conducted by PhilHealth. It is very clear that the alleged P10.6-billion fund is non-existent,” Garin said.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila (RCAM) denied any participation in a questioned settlement deal between PhilHealth and the Cardinal Santos Medical Center (CSMC) in 2011.
On Tuesday, deputy speaker Rodante Marcoleta pushed for the filing of plunder charges against the former owners of the Cardinal Santos Medical Center over a settlement case with PhilHealth in 2011.
Manila Apostolic Administrator Bishop Broderick Pabillo said RCAM is merely “the registered owner of the property where Cardinal Santos Medical Center is located” and it is not directly involved in the hospital’s operations.
“RCAM decided to engage the services of a third party, which is Hospital Managers Inc. (HMI), to professionally manage and operate CSMC, on August 1, 1988, for a period of 10 years, renewable for another 10 years, until July 31, 2008,” said Pabillo.
“Thus, in that period, RCAM was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the hospital, and, hence, was not involved in any transactions with PhilHealth,” he added.
The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) said PhilHealth tops the list of agencies it is investigating, Commissioner Greco Belgica said.
The others are the Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Department of Public Works and Highways, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources. He said this means that these agencies had the most number of complaints for alleged corruption and irregularities.
Belgica said the PACC is ready to file cases against 13 officials of the health insurance firm but he could not disclose details as different investigations are ongoing. — With Gerard Naval and Jocelyn Montemayor
