NBI-CEVRO starts probe on ‘anomalies’ at PhilHealth offices in CV

Lawyer Rennan Augustus Oliva, NBI-CEVRO chief. | CDND Photo / Alven Marie A. Timtim

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The National Bureau of Investigation Central Visayas Regional Office (NBI-CEVRO) has started its review of documents coming from the different Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) offices in the region to verify corruption allegations.

Lawyer Renan Augustus Oliva, the NBI-CEVRO chief, said that they are working in coordination with the Commission on Audit (COA) in analyzing the gathered data before they will submit these to their national headquarters.

Initially, Oliva said they already forwarded to the national headquarters documents from the Philhealth district office in Bohol province and Dumaguete City.

“There are hospitals there nga naay mga claims so atoang gi check ang claims” said Oliva.

It was during the second week of August when the NBI formed a task force to investigate accusations of anomalies in some PhilHealth offices.  During their investigation, NBI is tasked to also look into the lifestyle of some of the agency’s officials and employees.

Read: NBI creates task force to investigate alleged corruption in PhilHealth

To have a clearer picture of the agency’s cash disbursements, Oliva said they are now going over agency documents before and during the time of the pandemic when applications for health insurance coverage started to mount.

“Ang PhilHealth region 7 already forwarded before we started our investigation a request for assistance regarding alleged claims na they found questionable. Gi usa nalang namo ang directive sa national and katong request sa local,” said Oliva.

Oliva said he is grateful for the cooperation that agency officials in Central Visayas have given them during the conduct of their ongoing investigation. / dcb