Pangilinan Says PhilHealth Needs Leader W/ Public Health Experience
PHILHEALTH – Senator Francis “Kiko” Panglinan said Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) needs a leader with public health experience.
Philippine Health Insurance Corporation’s (PhilHealth) former chief Ricardo Morales resigned for health reasons amid 3 separate investigations into allegations of mismanagement and corruption. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte replaced him with former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Dante Gierran.
The 75-year-old chief executive thought it’s best to appoint a new chief at the agency who is capable of conducting investigations in order to halt the corruption within the agency.
In a previous article, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Gierran is a “very good choice.” He said the ex-NBI Director has a “clean record” and his investigative skills “can crack the whip in ferreting out anomalies in the agency.”
In his interview with ANC’s Headstart, Gierran said he has no prior knowledge or experience in public health. “I’m very scared. I’m scared because I don’t know the operations of PhilHealth. Unlike NBI, I knew the operations of NBI. But PhilHealth, wala. I do not know about public health,” he said.
“What I know about is financial management, having been a certified public accountant, and insurance,” he added.
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Based on a report from Philstar, Senator Kiko Pangilinan responded to Dante Gierran’s statement. He said PhilHealth needs a leader who has experience with public health and financial expertise.
“I have serious misgivings about [Gierran’s] appointment given that we clearly need a more holistic rather than a simplistic law enforcement approach to the cancer confronting PhilHealth in particular and the COVID health crisis in general.”
“His predecessor too had no public health experience and that ended terribly for PhilHealth,” he added.
According to the report, Sen. Kiko Pangilinan further cited section 14 of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act which demands “that the Board cannot recommend a President and CEO of PhilHealth unless the member is a Filipino citizen and must have at least seven (7) years of experience in the field of public health, management, finance, and health economics or a combination of any of these expertise.”
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