President Rodrigo Roa Duterte said he would reorganize the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to get rid of corruption and also floated the idea of abolishing the state-run insurance corporation.

“But I will try to begin tomorrow shaking the tree sa PhilHealth. Balak ko mag-reorganize and impose upon them a single line of authority. No more so many… Wala namang iba diyan eh,” the President said in a televised public address on Monday.

“There are so many tables there in an office, hindi lang PhilHealth, na who can do the work, who can process the papers without really having a discretion whether or not he should be hanging on it, he’s sitting on it.”

The President also wants Congress to pass a legislation that will fight red tape in the bureaucracy.

Also during his address, President Duterte said he would propose to Congress to abolish PhilHealth, adding, however, that the insurance corporation could not be privatized.

“Kung i-privatize mo naman, susmaryosep, walang pera. Sino insurance mo…? Huwag mo sabihin ng mga kapitalista sa insurance: Kami ang magbayad? Wala kayong pondo,” he said.

The government could create a new agency and remove the people that are already entrenched, he said.

“Hindi na puwede na itong mga tao na ito they are already entrenched na. Wala, walang mangyari. Talagang either I’m going to revamp, consider everybody resigned there and if there’s the structure, we can slowly… And ‘yung i-disband ‘yung ibang ano. Just a simple — I mean as simple as it could ever be. That’s what I mean.”

President Duterte approved the recommendation of a task force that investigated PhilHealth calling for the filing of cases against its officials, including Ricardo Morales, the former chief.

Among the charges include graft, malversation and illegal use of public funds, gross misconduct and gross neglect. PND