President Rodrigo Duterte is considering the reorganization of state insurance agency PhilHealth which is marred with corruption and anomalies.
He said he will attempt to reorganize the agency by deeming all its personnel resigned.
“I will try to begin tomorrow shaking the tree sa PhilHealth. Balak ko mag-reorganize and impose upon them a single line of authority,” he said in his taped speech aired Monday night.
“Hindi na puwede na itong mga tao na ito, they are already entrenched (sic) na. Wala, walang mangyari. Talagang either I’m going to revamp, consider everybody resigned there.”
[I will try to shake the tree in PhilHealth tomorrow. I plan to reorganize and impose a single line of authority. The people employed there will not do, they are considered retrenched. I will revamp it, consider everybody resigned.]
The president said this is only the first step in his plans to fix the agency.
Abolishing PhilHealth will also be a course that he is considering.
“I am going to propose to Congress to abolish… Kung i-privatize mo naman, susmaryosep, walang pera. Huwag mo sabihin ng mga kapitalista sa insurance: Kami ang magbayad? Wala kayong pondo,” he said.
[I am going to propose to the Congress to abolish it. There is no money if it will be privatized. The insurance capitalists will say: ‘So we’re going to pay? But you don’t have funds.’]
For the past months, PhilHealth was hounded with investigations for corruption with the senators recommending the filing of graft charges against its top officials.
Duterte previously approved the recommendation of the Department of Justice-led (DOJ) investigating task force to file criminal and administrative complaints against Morales and five other officials.
