Attempts of the government to pay the P930 million owed by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) remains stalled, as the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) reported that the processing of swab samples of returning OFWs has yet to resume.
The PRC has yet to announce the resumption of reverse transcription-polymerase reaction (RT-PCR) testing even after President Rodrigo R. Duterte already committed to settle the debt of PhilHealth.
At least 6,000 OFWs are stranded in the National Capital Region (NCR) as they await the release of their test results.
Legal opinion
Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III disclosed PhilHealth is still waiting for the opinion of the Department of Justice (DOJ) on its legal concerns on the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) it signed with PRC for the conduct of RT-PCR test.
In an SMS, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told BusinessMirror they are prioritizing the request of PhilHealth and they expect to release their legal opinion on the matter within the week.
This was also confirmed by Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, who said the government has enough funds to pay PhilHealth debt and that it only needs to process the necessary “paper works” before it could do so.
Advance payment option
But due to the large amount of the debt, he said the government will initially only be able to pay half the amount.
“You’re talking of half a billion ‘no. So, I understand that the Red Cross cannot continue functioning unless it also has its cash requirements ‘no. And that’s why we give utmost priority to settling at least 50 percent,” Roque said in a television interview with CNN Philippines.
Bello said they are open to use their funds to help PhilHealth pay the amount it owes to PhilHealth.
“We can pay in advance, but we need it to be reimbursed later,” Bello said in an online briefing on Wednesday.
Mounting expenses
DOLE is expecting that the number of stranded OFWs would exceed 6,000 by next week if the government fails to pay the amount owed by the PhilHealth to PRC in the coming days.
Bello said he hopes PhilHealth could finally settle its debt to PRC within the week so they could avoid additional expenses for the accommodation and food of the stranded OFWs.
Since PRC stopped last week conducting RT-PCR tests, which are paid by PhilHealth, the release of the test result of OFWs now take 5 to 7 days from just 3 to 4 days before.
“This means we have to pay for an additional three days [of accommodation] this week,” Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) administrator Hans Cacdac told BusinessMirror in a phone interview. “We will will be able to compute this additional expense next week.”