"After a person sworn to remove the corrupt
becomes the corrupt"
Thoughts after the recent corruption scandal
in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation
in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation
It seems that in a time people demand for financial aid, and health workers as in need for their medical equipment, that big bureaucrats treated the national health insurance system as a milking cow for their personal interest.
For as one of the government institutions that's been marred by corruption scandals, Philhealth involves cash advances and reimbursements worth billions of pesos, all being released against ghost receipts prepared by syndicates inside the health insurance system, and Top officials take advantage of their position to finance their high-style of living, junkets, and other extravagant expenses.
For sure the president is feigning ignorance despite claiming he is against corruption in his administration. But it is not surprising that the administration as fully well that Philhealth has been a den of corruption, a milking cow for scrupulous officials and criminal syndicates. And is tiptoeing around his appointed Philhealth President former general Ricardo Morales instead of suspending and face charges, worrying that the military might irk for this.
But remember, Duterte's appointment of Morales as Philhealth president is way too far from the requirements needed by the charter (an expert in the field of medicine and management) despite his credentials as head of the AFP General Insurance Corporation and was President and CEO of the AFP Mutual Benefit Association, Inc. Furthermore, this also reflects Duterte's "neo-Arroyo" way of appointing former Military officers to government posts like Año for the Interior and Local Government, Galvez for the Peace Process, Visaya for the National Irrigation Administration, and others Duterte handpicked upon amongst the retired men in uniform.
Initially one would say that Morales really viewed his designation as a "challenge" and "honour", that he promised to "fix the organisation" and "to eliminate corruption" in a period when the Universal Health Care act was enacted; but to say "there is always corruption in Philhealth" shows a contrary to his earlier promise: for did he just admit that he tolerate corruption? That there are good crooks and bad crooks within the institution? Seems that the trust and confidence from the people towards the institution has becoming a shitstorm especially when these crooks turned an institution into a milking cow for their interests-especially in the time of pandemic.
For now the administration is trying to appear "observant" in this issue involving their handpicked official. Duterte is again telling that he will go after corrupt officials while Morales had to "leave" because of his illness. The question is this: will he face the shitstorm along with those who are implicated in the scandal? After all, he appointed that person who had the "privilege" and "honour" to work in that institution- only to admi he as incapable of doing by saying "there is always corruption."
Perhaps, to cut this note short, that the corruption scandal shows the negligence coming from a person supposed to clean the institution of corruptors, if not exposes further the systemic problem in the neoliberal thrust of privatising the entire health and medical insurance system where bureaucrats and capitalists alike enjoy endless streams of profits all at the expense of the people who contributed for the sake of its benefits especially in this time of pandemic.