MANILA - Sen. Richard Gordon questioned the zero prosecution record of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) amid all the corruption allegations the agency is currently facing.

"Sino ang prosecutor ninyo? Ang record ng prosecutor ninyo, zero ang napo-prosecute, at isa lang ang arbitration. Sa dinami-dami ng kaso, zero ang napo-prosecute," Gordon said during Tuesday's Senate inquiry.

(Who is your prosecutor? Your prosecutor has a zero prosecution record, and there is a single arbitration. Out of all those cases, there is zero prosecution.)

Responding to Gordon's question, Rodolfo del Rosario, PhilHealth vice president for legal affairs, said the agency received a zero rating from the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) not because it did not work on any cases, but because the cases were all resolved beyond the turnaround time prescribed by the GCG.

"The zero rating given by the GCG refers to the number of cases that were processed within a defined turnaround time," he said.

"But ang nangyari po, the cases resolved was about 1,700, pero lahat po 'yun lampas sa turnaround time ng prosecution kaya po siya zero. And this was in 2017," Del Rosario added.

(But what happened is that the 1,700 cases were all resolved beyond the turnaround time that's why we got a zero rating. And this was in 2017.)

Del Rosario also said the PhilHealth board is currently deliberating on cases involving regional directors who are allegedly involved in corruption.

• PhilHealth's Cagayan region officials tried to embezzle P9.7M: resigned anti-fraud officer
• Lacson questions PhilHealth COVID fund release to dialysis center

PhilHealth chief Ricardo Morales, along with other officials, are being investigated by the Senate over their alleged involvement in anomalous transactions, including the procurement of supposedly overpriced computers and other materials.

The PhilHealth chief has belied the allegations, saying several "corrupt officials" are trying to discredit the insurance firm's modernization program that would make flagging irregularities easier.

Morales, who was tasked by President Rodrigo Duterte to rid PhilHealth of corruption, is pushing to overhaul the agency's current information system to curb fraudulent activities.