Ombudsman hands preventive suspension to 13 PhilHealth officials

August 20, 2020

The Office of the Ombudsman on Wednesday suspended preventively 13 officials  of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) for six months, some without pay as it looks into graft allegations, reports said.

Top PhilHealth officials suspended were Dennis Mas, senior vice president for Management Services Sector; Israel Pargas, senior vice president for health finance and policy sector; Shirley Domingo, vice president for corporate affairs group and Rodolfo Del Rosario, legal sector chief.

Rank-and-file PhilHealth employees  welcomed the preventive suspension slapped versus 13 officials.

In a virtual press conference, PhilHealth - Workers for Hope, Integrity, Transparency and Empowerment (Philhealth-WHITE) said it is a welcome surprise.

"We are also surprised with that news of preventive suspension. I think it is just proper, right that they are preventively suspended so they cannot influence the pending case, which is filed against them," said PhilHealth - WHITE President Fe Francisco.

"We hope that these investigations will be over and done with soon so we can get to the bottom of this and we can all move on as this has become a vicious cycle already," said Francisco.

She said that having a prolonged investigation hurts ordinary PhilHealth employees.

"We are hurt, the majority of honest and hardworking rank and file employees because of these sweeping statements. The accusations/allegations are being hurled at the entire Corporation and the people are getting demoralized," she said.

PhilHealth said it has yet to receive a copy of the Ombudsman's order .

"As of this time, the concerned officers are not aware of the charges against them," said PhilHealth in its Twitter account. DMS