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Gordon calls ex-Budget chief Abad 'liar' for disputing his report
Former Budget Secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad has denied the allegations of diverting P10.6 billion in PhilHealth funds, calling the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee's recommendation for criminal charges against him "baseless."
Senator Richard Gordon alleged that Abad, along with former Health Secretary Janette Garin and former PhilHealth president Alexander Padilla, diverted funds intended for senior citizens' premiums to construct barangay health centers and procure dental trucks.
Gordon claimed these constructed health centers and procured dental trucks were not utilized.
Abad refuted the claim, stating that there was no P10.6 billion budget to speak of and that funds could not have been diverted if they were not initially in the budget.
He further explained that while PhilHealth applied for funding for senior citizen premiums under the Unprogrammed Fund of the 2015 General Appropriations Act, this source had no available funds and therefore, no item of this nature was funded in 2015.
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See how different news organizations are covering this story. Below are the original articles from various Philippine news sources that contributed to this summary.
Iloilo Representative and former health secretary Janette Garin has dismissed the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee's report recommending criminal charges against her as a "big joke."
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Senator Richard Gordon refuted claims that his committee's recommendation to file charges against former officials of the Aquino administration was a tactic to deflect attention from current allies of President Duterte implicated in PhilHealth corruption.
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Senator Panfilo Lacson stated that PhilHealth's P14 billion Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) involved over 600 cases of malversation.
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Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) President Ricardo C. Morales resigned, with President Rodrigo R. Duterte accepting his resignation ostensibly to allow him to focus on his cancer treatment.
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Senator Panfilo Lacson has not seen nor signed the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee report concerning alleged PhilHealth fund diversion, which recommends criminal charges against former health and budget officials for diverting P10.6 billion from the PhilHealth Senior Citizen Fund in December 2015.
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