It is alleged that President Rodrigo Duterte is giving until December the new chair of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp (PhilHealth) Dante Gierran to clean up the alleged corruption in the agency.
According to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, President Duterte will look into whether Gierran, a former chief of the National Bureau of Investigation, will be able to clean up PhilHealth’s ranks before it considers the dissolution or privatization of the state health insurer.
“The deadline given to Attorney Gierran is a deadline to clean up the organization. File all the cases that need to be filed, suspend, terminate, whatever you need to do in order to cleanse the ranks of PhilHealth, ”Roque said.
“It does not mean that his term is only up to that point.”
Earlier, the president met with Senate President Vicente Sotto III and House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano where one of the topics discussed was the controversy surrounding PhilHealth.
According to Sotto, he is the one who recommended the President to review Gierran’s leadership before deciding to dissolve or privatize the agency.
It will be recalled that Gierran promised that it would address the issue of corruption in PhilHealth within two years.
“Sigurado ‘yan, kakayanin. Kakayanin ko talaga ‘yan,” said Gierran.