HENERAL LUNACY
The line between public service and corruption is mind set.
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 scaleable, 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. [emphases mine]
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 P2,000,000,000,000 look like? It is twelve 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 P1,00 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 the over pricing in procurement. Network switches 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 the 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 cess pool, 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.