(Eagle News) –Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra and two senators have hailed the appointment of former National Bureau of Investigation chief Dante Gierran at the helm of PhilHealth.
According to Guevarra, Gierran’s legal and accounting background, and “his well-known investigative skills, administrative abilities, and fiscal prudence” make him fit for PhilHealth’s top post.
Senate President Tito Sotto agreed, noting Gierran also had a clean record.
Senator Panfilo Lacson shared the same sentiment on Twitter, saying the former NBI chief was “a good man.”
“Aside from a clean record, he has investigative skills that can crack the whip in ferreting out anomalies in the agency,” Sotto said.
“…And (his background) equip(s) him well to pursue the cleansing process and reformation at PhilHealth to their logical conclusion,” Guevarra added.
Gierran’s appointment was made public on Monday night, days after Ricardo Morales resigned from the post due to health reasons.
Morales, who has been diagnosed with lymphoma and is undergoing chemotherapy, resigned after President Rodrigo Duterte said it would be “best” for him to quit amid the “crucial times” PhilHealth was facing.
The Senate and the House of Representatives are probing allegations of corruption in aid of legislation in the state insurer.
Apart from the two houses of Congress, a task force formed by the Department of Justice and the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission are probing the allegations made by Thorrsson Montes Keith, antifraud officer who resigned from PhilHealth in July.
Keith had alleged, among others, that a PhilHealth “mafia” had pocketed P15 billion in PhilHealth funds.
The PhilHealth board designated its executive vice president Arnel De Jesus as officer-in-charge of PhilHealth following Morales’ resignation, a move hit by lawmakers who noted De Jesus’ health.
De Jesus told the Senate early August he would be unable to attend a Senate hearing probing the corruption allegations due to a “medical emergency,” and submitted a medical certificate saying he was set to undergo an angioplasty, among others.
