MANILA--Employees of Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) dissatisfied with its management under its former head Celestina Ma. Jude dela Serna have welcomed news reports that she was fired by President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
"That is what we will really request to President Duterte, that we be given a permanent and competent president because we are really suffering from the incompetency of Dr. dela Serna," Maria Fe Francisco, head of PhilHealth's Workers for Hope, Integrity, Transparency and Empowerment (WHITE) said in a phone interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Monday.
Francisco said the decision to remove dela Serna was timely as there was ready a mounting dissatisfaction among the employees of the state-run insurer due to the alleged mismanagement.
She said that PhilHealth's mismanagement was evident in the increased deficit incurred by the agency.
"After losing PHP250 million in 2016, PhilHealth initially announced an PHP8.9 billion loss for 2017. However, shortly after being questioned on the huge loss, PhilHealth corrected its earlier announcement and stated that it only has a PHP4 billion deficit, still an almost 200 percent increase from the previous year," she said.
She also noted how PhilHealth failed to achieve its performance commitments-- gaining a dismal 53 percent Corporate Performance rating in 2017, after having a performance rating of more than 90 percent in 2016.
"These twin indicators (financial loss and poor corporate performance rating) are the concrete consequences of the incompetent management and lack of direction which have plagued the corporation of late," she said.
News reports said that dela Serna was replaced by Dr. Roy Ferrer, a board member of PhilHealth from Davao City.
She claimed that dela Serna's insensitive leadership has brought about widespread demoralization among PhilHealth employees and officers.
She also said that instead of focusing on policy interventions to arrest the losses and addressing the substantial issues threatening the sustainability of the corporation's funds, dela Serna and her co-appointees in the Board have engaged in anti-employee actions and blamed officers and employees for the loss and poor performance.
"Last Thursday, management announced the discontinuance of the PHP2,700 monthly rice allowance which was due for receipt the following day (June 1, 2018), causing a state of panic since most rank and file employees had earmarked this allowance for the school needs of their children," she said.
She said that those actions showed ineffective leadership and lack of genuine concern as the employees were not notified ahead of time nor given the chance to be given other non-monetary benefits instead.
Dela Serna hogged the headlines after the Commission on Audit questioned the travel and hotel accommodation expenses she incurred during her stint as president of PhilHealth.
Dela Serna earlier insisted that she already provided the answer to the COA report and expressed willingness to discuss the matter with President Duterte.
Meanwhile, Kim Erro, interim treasurer of WHITE, said that they will remain vigilant on how Ferrer will be managing PhilHealth.
"Because our previous president of PhilHealth has a background on health finance, after that what followed only came from small hospitals. Management of PhilHealth is not the same with running a small hospital,"said Erro.
She said that their group will continue to air their concerns to the incoming PhilHealth chief. (PNA)
