PhilHealth officials to quit after meeting Duterte: Duque

June 11, 2019

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Tuesday officials of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will tender their resignation immediately.

In an interview, Duque said PhilHealth officials will follow President Rodrigo Duterte’s marching orders despite some details to be clarified.

"They will tender their resignation -- the letters of resignation. But the action of acceptance will be solely on the Office of the President," said Duque.

"The marching order of the President is quite clear: he expects that the letters of resignation will be in before the end of the day. He would like a clean slate at PhilHealth," he added.

Duque said how extensive is the order to resign is will have to be clarified with Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.

"What is clear, initially, is that the acting President and CEO, and six other presidential appointees to the board have been instructed to tender their courtesy resignations. He did mention about those next in line," said Duque.

Duque will meet PhilHealth officials to discuss the orders of Duterte.

On Monday, it was revealed Duterte would ask for the resignation of PhilHealth officials in the wake of a multi billion-peso scam allegedly involving dead kidney patients.

Meanwhile, Duque called on the public to help prevent a repeat of the supposed fraudulent activities involving PhilHealth funds.

He asked the public to do their part in restoring credibility of the state health insurer. DMS