BY GERARD NAVAL and RAYMOND AFRICA
THE embattled president of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) is looking at filing charges for violation of his privacy after the Senate made public his medical condition.
Ricardo Morales, PhilHealth president and chief executive officer, said he felt “humiliated” as he was not ready to make public his lymphoma.
“I am having some lawyers look at it. The privacy law has been violated. Maybe the Senate, maybe they are above the privacy law. I don’t know. I have the lawyers look at it,” he said in a TV interview.
The Senate is investigating latest allegations of wrongdoing at the state insurer, including overpricing of information technology equipment, “ghost” and overpriced PhilHealth claims, and overpriced coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test kits.
The Senate has scheduled a hearing for today.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said there is no such thing as privacy for ranking government officials.
“When you hold a high public office, you are a servant of, and answerable to, the people.
There is no privacy!… If you are a government official, you are no longer private, there is no privacy. Everything about you is public, even your family. There is nothing private about you anymore,” Sotto said.
He said government officials are required to inform the public know of their health condition, and Morales is not exempted.
Morales was diagnosed with lymphoma or cancer of the lymph nodes in February. Last week, he sent a letter to the Senate, asking to be allowed to attend a hearing today, but only via teleconferencing. The request included a medical showing he has been diagnosed with “diffuse large B cell lymphoma” and is undergoing chemotherapy at a private hospital in San Juan City.
Morales’ oncologist advised the 67-year-old PhilHealth chief to complete six cycles of treatment “during which he will be immuno-compromised and vulnerable to opportunistic infections.”
“It is therefore in his best interest that I have advised him to take a leave of absence. He shall undergo a repeat PET CT scan (positron emission tomography computed tomography scan) after completing six cycles of chemotherapy, after which I shall make a recommendation when he can resume work,” Morales’ oncologist said.
Aside from Morales, PhilHealth executive vice president Arnel de Jesus also sent a letter to the Senate, saying he will not be able to attend Tuesday’s hearing for health reasons as he is confined in a hospital.
‘HUMILIATED ENOUGH’
Morales said he was not prepared to make his condition public.
“I really feel humiliated by my medical condition being brought out in public. In PhilHealth, we are very careful with patients data because it involves private personal data. So I feel my privacy was violated when they published my medical certificate,” he said.
“It really embarrasses me to talk about my personal health condition. I would prefer it if we would not discuss it because I think I have been exposed enough, humiliated enough,” he said in the TV interview.
Morales first raised the issue of violation of his privacy last Sunday as he said he submitted the medical certificate only to substantiate his request to attend the Senate inquiry virtually.
He said it was never submitted to excuse himself from representing PhilHealth in the ongoing investigations on the fresh set of corruption allegations.
“I will attend to clarify issues that were brought up then and to be able to clarify them in this session, and to explain our side,” he said.
“It was only submitted for them to allow me to attend online. That was all. That’s to justify my appearance online,” said Morales.
