BY GENALYN KABILING
Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) president Dante Gierran has been given an ultimatum by President Duterte to clean up the corruption-tainted state firm, suspend or terminate any erring officials before the end of the year, Malacañang announced Thursday.
The ultimatum on the PhilHealth cleanup was issued after the President expressed support for the abolition or privatization of the government firm that has been plagued with corruption allegations, according to Presidential spokesman Harry Roque.
“It is an ultimatum. You need to clean up PhilHealth by end of the year,” Roque said during a televised press briefing Thursday.
He said the President wants Gierran “to clean up the organization, file all the cases that need to be filed, suspend, terminate, whatever you need to do to cleanse the ranks of PhilHealth” before the end of the year.
Gierran, former director of the National Bureau of Investigation, was appointed to head PhiHealth late last month. He replaced Ricardo Morales who resigned due to his medical condition.
Roque also confirmed reports that the President wants PhiHealth abolished or transformed into a private entity.
“Ang paninindigan ni President ay either i-abolish or i-privateize yan. sinabi naman yan sa pagpupulong ng ilang miyembro ng IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) (The President’s stance is either to abolish or privatize that. He has mentioned it in a meeting with some members of the IATF),” he said. (Genalyn Kabiling)
