DENYING allegations of fund misuse, former Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) chief Francisco Duque III assured millions of overseas Filipino workers that their money was put into good use.
In an interview with ABS-CBN this morning, Duque said he will be coming out with the “full report” on the questionable transfer of P530.382 million from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to PhilHealth.
The latest controversy stemmed from the plunder case filed against former president and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Duque, former OWWA administrator Virgilio Angelo, and former Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo.
Filed by former Solicitor General Frank Chavez and migrants’ rights group Migrante International, Arroyo and her allies were accused of “systematically orchestrating the diversion and misuse of the OWWA Fund” to bankroll her campaign for the 2004 presidential elections.
But the Commission on Audit (COA) said on Wednesday the transfer per se was not anomalous. Under Executive Order No. 182, the transfers were authorized in 2005, after the elections. The OWWA board of trustees authorized it but the actual transfers were made in two installments in March (P300 million) and April (P230 million).
Duque in a radio interview on Wednesday also said he has the two checks bearing the exact date of the issuance.
In 2002, Duque sought the transfer of health insurance funds of OFWs from the OWWA to PhilHealth, stating in the proposed Executive Order that Arroyo’s approval of the diversion of funds “will have a significant bearing on the 2004 elections.”
Earlier reports showed that part of this fund enabled Arroyo to give away PhilHealth cards that were valid for a year in places where she held campaigns.
At the time, Migrante reported that OWWA stopped all medical reimbursements and release of checks of about 400 OFWs in January 2004. The overseas workers were told that OWWA had stopped processing the claims.
Duque however said the money transferred to PhilHealth was used to support the medical needs of OFWs and their families.
But Chavez asserted in his complaint the transfers were not beneficial to the OFWs. Under Republic Act No. 8042, otherwise known as “The Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995,” the fund collected from contributions from employers and OFWs are for the direct and exclusive benefit of Filipino overseas workers.”
Chavez also said in his complaint that Romulo, Arroyo’s former executive secretary, requested in a March 2003 memorandum the release of $293,500 to finance “preparatory activities” of the Philippine post in Kuwait and the “purchase of vehicles” and “stockpiling” of the posts in Lebanon, Jordan, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt, and Iran, in support of the US-led war in Iraq.
Arroyo allegedly authorized this request and another where Romulo asked for the release of P5M for the “Task Force for the Coordination of Philippine Humanitarian Assistance to Iraq.”
Meanwhile, activist lawyer and University of the Philippines law professor Harry Roque said the more important issue is whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) will act on it.
“We have so many complaints versus GMA filed in the DOJ but they have not been acted upon,” he said. Roque led the filing of an impeachment complaint against Arroyo during her term. “Sandiganbayan is still dominated by GMA appointees,” he added.
A plunder complaint was first filed against Arroyo on August last year by Danilo Lihaylihay, president of Philippine Association of Revenue Informers Inc. and chief investigator of Vanguard Anti-graft Task Force Inc.
Lihaylihay accused Arroyo and three other former Cabinet officials of failing to remit the P72M capital gains tax they had collected from the sale of the 54.5-hectare airport in Iloilo. All of which were allegedly approved by Arroyo. – Kathlyn dela Cruz, VERA Files intern
Read the complaint here:Frank Chavez Complaint Against Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
Frank Chavez Complaint Agai… by VERA Files