GRACE POE's TRANSCRIPT
Committee of the Whole hearing

ON PHILHEALTH:

Sen. Grace Poe: Bilang isang doktor kapag may nakita kayo sa pasyente ninyo na isang sintomas, halimbawa may nakikita kayong hindi tama o kaya may bukol, hindi ba mas lalo mong kikilatisin at iimbestigahan?

Sec. Francisco Duque: Tama po kayo, your honor.

Poe: At kapag may nakita naman kayo na maaaring makasama ito sa kalaunan ay agad ninyong susugpuin, hindi ba?

Duque: Tama po kayo, your honor.

Poe: Gamot o kaya ooperahan ninyo para matanggal.

Duque: Tama po. Bilang isang doktor po dapat po 'yun ang gagawin.

Poe: Pero alam niyo po parang ang sakit na nararanasan ngayon ng PhilHealth ay isang cancer na dahil paulit-ulit po itong nangyayari, noon pa. Ang masasabi lamang natin kung merong isang tao na may institutional knowledge ng PhilHealth kung ibabase natin sa haba ng paninilbihan bilang isang pinuno ay kayo po 'yun sapagkat ilang taon kayo sa PhilHealth bilang Chairman or President?

Duque: Bilang President from 2001 to 2005 and then as Chairman po from 2005 to 2010 tapos naibalik ako nitong 2017, your honor.

Poe: So masasabi nating halos 11 taon kayong naninilbihan sa PhilHealth?

Duque: As Chairman and President po.

Poe: Kaya nga so sa tagal ng panahon po na 'yun, ang masasabi lang natin, paulit-ulit ninyong binabanggit na kayo ay may krusada laban sa korapsyon subalit parang taliwas ito sa mga napapakita ninyo at sasabihin ko kung bakit. 'Yung isa ngang article dito sa Inquirer sinasabi na 4,357 administrative cases since that was submitted in 2018, not one was actually acted upon. Can you comment on this?

Duque: 'Yun po kasing, ano pong taon ito Ma'am? Ano pong taon ito?

Poe: Basta 2018 ang nababanggit doon sa artikulo na 'yun.

Duque: Oho, Ma'am 'yun pong governance scorecard na pinagawa po natin for PhilHealth, in-address po natin na 'yung turnaround time kasi nakaka-frustrate, 'yun pong paglilitis ng mga kaso parang sobrang napakatagal. Kanina po nabanggit ko 'yung 3,000 cases ng cataract fraudulent cases ay na-archive pa nga po. At nung bumalik ako ang sabi ko 'Ilabas ninyo uli ang mga kaso na 'yan. Hindi naman pwedeng ia-archive lang yan.' So isinama ko na po ito doon sa mga government reform natin na 'yung turnaround time ng mga kaso ng administrative cases ng PhilHealth ay dapat they have to expedite it to its logical conclusion.

ON MIDAS:

Poe: Mr. Secretary, since doktor po kayo paki-explain na lang and please pardon if I don't pronounce it right. Let me give you an example of MIDAS Fraud and Abuse findings. Let me just make a note that a lot of the documents were sent to the Senate at the last minute. I think some of them were received just yesterday and this is almost like dumping on us all of these voluminous papers and at the last minute we had to review each and every one of them. I think it's almost like intentional that this is being done, but anyway in the MIDAS Fraud and Abuse findings when it comes to the debridement of eczematous skin, can you explain to me what that is?

Duque: The debridement of eczematous skin means cleaning, sterilizing the affected area.

Poe: Did it come to your attention, the average kasi nationally I'd say would probably be, well it ranges from P33 million to about P737,000. So 'yung high is P33 million, 'yung low is P700,00. So napakalaki ng agwat and 'yun pang pinakamalaking agwat ay sa iisang lugar. I am not going to mention the name of the professional involved because I don't want to focus on a personality here but the symptom of a larger institutional problem. So, in this one region parang lumalabas na P56 million ang ibinayad, one is for P33 million, another is for P23 million for four years lang. Isang case lang 'yan. So kung talagang merong ano, 'yan pwede na 'yan tingnan. Tapos hindi lamang 'yun, merong isang clinic na nag-submit ng fraudulent reimbursement claims noong 2018, the year before you were appointed. On average their dialysis machines capacity was 100 to 133 percent, pero noong sinubmit 'yun, ito yung B. Braun Avitum, you still gave them P45.17 million under the IRM. May official receipt pa ito, so parang 'yung mga nagkakaroon ng kaso ay nabibigyan pa, let's not get into the detail of what the case is right now. But this is what I am saying, they already have pending cases, they've been found to be doing something less than exemplary and yet they continually receive funding from the DOH. This is either negligence of malice, so what would it be in your case?