The grandest
heist in our history is happening under our very eyes.
It is the
perfect con: It is big, it is simple, it is scalable, it is recurring, it is
unaccountable, it can go unnoticed for years. It is taking candy from a baby.
Every
Government has a milking cow. In the Marcos era it was the coconut levy and
sugar industry funds, in others it was the privatization of Government
controlled corporations, the NFA rice cartel. But all these pale by comparison
with the latest scam in terms of size, audacity and disgrace. The new idea is
to take food directly from the mouths of the poor.
I am referring
to the raid on our health and social institutions.
The 2020 budget
for health and social services is P800 billion. This includes P173 billion for
Universal Health Care, P109 billion for Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps)
and P37 billion for unconditional cash
transfers. It totals some P5 trillion over 6 years of an Administration. It is
a milking cow on steroids.
And the cow is
getting fatter.
Under Bayanihan
1 Government has carved out from other departments an estimated P400 billion for COVID related expenses. This
brings funds under DOH and DSWD control to over one trillion pesos.
And fatter.
Congress under
ARISE has passed legislation increasing spending by P1.3 trillion largely for COVID. If
implemented, in the two years leading to the 2022 election total funds under
the discretion of the DOH and DSWD could increase to over two trillion pesos.
What does
P2,000,000,000 look like? It is nine zeros. It is 10% of our annual GDP. It is
P100,000 for every household of five. It is 20 times what 18 million families
were supposed to receive from 4Ps but never did. It is the amount of money your
children will have to pay, with interest, for the rest of their lives. At
P1,000 per vote it is 2 billion votes even if only 30 million are needed.
And fatter.
The public -
and of course the politicians - want the DOH budget increased to whatever it
takes to fight COVID. It is politically
the most popular fiscal initiative. The only person standing between a deficit
tsunami and our fiscal home is DOF Sec. Dominguez for which he is being scoured
by the pundits. Sonny knows it is only corrupt Government officials and their
cabals who will see any of it. The victims of this standoff, unfortunately, are
the poor whose social amelioration funds (SAFs) are now frozen.
The heist takes
various forms.
There is the
raid on social relief programs, the 4Ps and the unconditional cash transfers
which this year reached some P400 billion. The LGUs are responsible for many of
the distribution points. Millions of the intended recipients have still to
receive the P5,000-8,000 promised them even as the Treasury says it has signed
the checks.
Corruption in
the social sector is chunky, it happens mainly in calamities. Corruption in the
DOH is a regular occurrence, as much as P3 billion a week if you believe the
head of the Philippine Anti-Corruption Commission.
Philhealth is
the poster child of the malfeasance in the department. It is the Toys R' Us of
corruption.
There is over
pricing in procurement. Network switchers that cost P62,000 are purchased for
P320,000. Test kits bought at P8,150 were available at a fraction of the price.
The President
defended his Health Secretary Duque saying the kits were urgently required. The
President recently asked this same person to organize the purchase of urgently
required vaccines from Russia.
A Philhealth
consultant, Thorrsson Keith, recently resigned from Philhealth testifying the
agency’s ICT equipment was overpriced by P734 million. He said a “mafia” in
Philhealth was involved in P15 billion of fraud over the years.
There is the
padding for health care services. Stories of claims for unnecessary procedures
for dialysis and ophthalmology amounting to P154 billion have been going around
the medical community for years and continue unabated.
There are
thousands of ghost patients. Some 5,000 Philhealth members, average age 130,
reportedly still claim benefits.
Sen. Ping
Lacson reported that millions of funds earmarked for COVID patients have been
diverted to “maternity and dialysis centers”.
Sen. Zubiri
disclosed a 10 bed hospital in Davao has
been receiving P18 million yearly for God knows what.
There are the
non-COVID deaths being passed as COVID so hospitals in collusion with
Philhealth can hike their claims.
The Philhealth
website cites its core values as integrity, innovation, service, and care. It
does not mention lies, shame and corruption.
Philhealth is
chaired by DOH Sec. Francisco Duque (yes him again) with Brig. Gen. Ricardo
Morales as CEO and Annel de Jesus as COO. The latter two were subpoenaed by the
Senate to testify over the anomalies but their medical conditions suddenly
prevent them from doing so. It is the medical equivalent of taking the Fifth
Amendment against self incrimination.
In the
Philhealth 2018 annual report, its latest, Morales proudly wrote “he
introduced reforms to safeguard
Philhealth funds against abusive policies. Philhealth remained to be the most
trusted agency in the country based on multiple citations and independent
surveys conducted during the year”. I hate to think what the other agencies
look like.
In 2018
Philhealth had a capital of P97 billion, paid claims of P121 billion with P49
billion pending. It did not disclose how much of the P170 billion in claims was
real and how many imaginary. Philhealth received contributions of P132.5
billion from the hard earned money of its 53.8 million members. Now they are
told the agency could go bankrupt by 2022.
There has never
been a cookie jar in our history so large and so ready for the pickings. So now
you know why the head of the DOH is so critical.
Philhealth is
the mother of all scams, bigger than anything in Customs, the BIR or the so
called anomalies in our water concessions; yet it never made it to the
presidential SONA. It is a cesspool, a personal and possibly political slush
fund masquerading as universal health care. It is a vulture feeding on the
carcass of the weak and the poor. And nobody is accountable.
Fifty five
lowly Barangay captains have been put on "preventive suspension" for
suspected malversation of millions of SAF pesos while 5,526 addicts were
officially gunned down for a few ounces of shabu. It does not pay to be poor in
this country.
The President
announced he will “run amok at the whiff of corruption” in any Government
office. Surely billions of pesos in over-pricing, padded claims and stolen cash
must qualify as a whiff if not a smoke or a fire.
It is economic
sabotage of the highest order.
It should be
termed as
TERRORISM PUNISHABLE
WITHOUT WARRANT OR
BAIL under the Anti-Terror bill.
If nothing
should come of the announced investigations, the raid on our social and health
coffers will indeed be the perfect heist.
August 24, 2021
3D-ADDICT
