WRONG HANDS
Millions feared lost in PhilHealth check scam

By Florence F. Hibionada

Millions of pesos worth of claims with the State's PhilHealth program is feared lost to corrupt postal officials with the arrest of a postal worker in Negros Occidental on charges of check fraud.

The News Today learned of PhilHealth efforts to personally validate receipt of 700 checks which appear on paper to have been received by members, and encashed by them. The number in Western Visayas alone is expected to grow and reach thousands with PhilHealth calling on those who have pending claims to check the status of these.

Larry Tabsing, designated chief of PhilHealth's Anti-Fraud Unit, noted that the scheme would often victimize members residing in far-flung areas.

The scam, believed to be widespread in the region, involves postal officials encashing or negotiating the check without the payee's knowledge, and with their signatures forged. Amount of the checks would range from a few hundred to thousands of pesos. If a payee comes forward to claim the checks later, postal officials involved would pay in cash the amount of the check, or even higher.

Last week, agents of the National Bureau of Investigation arrested Ruby Abellar, a casual postal employee with the Silay Post Office during an entrapment operation allegedly for encashing a check intended for couple Leopoldo and Chona Quinlat, who had a claim with PhilHealth amounting to P3, 512.55.

Ruby Abellar aka Ruby Osano

Leopoldo was confined at the Dr. Jose Locsin Memorial Provincial Hospital in Silay City from September 19-28 last year. He then filed a claim with PhilHealth for reimbursement of hospital expenses. After some time, Chona checked with the PhilHealth unit from the said hospital the status of their claim, during which she was advised to verify with the Silay Post Office if the check had arrived. A lady employee at the Silay Post Office then asked her to verify with PhilHealth the registry number and date of mailing of the check. It was then discovered that the said check was already negotiated.

PhilHealth records showed that the check was presented to Chiara Tolentino, also a postal employee with the Silay Post Office.When the couple went back to the Silay Post Office to claim their check, Abellar handed P1,500, instead of a sealed envelope containing the PhilHealth check issued to their name.

“In other words, some enterprising post office personnel open registered mails containing PhilHealth checks and negotiate the same by falsifying the signature of the payees. If a payee verifies his/her check, he/she is paid the amount of the check (sometime even more than the amount of the check) instead of the check in a sealed PhilHealth envelope delivered or turned over to him/her.  In case of payees who do not verify, the proceeds of their checks go to the post office employee/s.  Meanwhile, the checks are returned to PhilHealth already negotiated,” PhilHealth reported in a document obtained by The News Today.

Other than Tolentino and Abellar, the NBI is also recommending the prosecution of Franco Espinosa, postmaster of Silay Post Office for violation of Articles 226 and 171, paragraph (1) of the Revised Penal Code.

“We do not want our government resources to be abused and taken advantaged by unscrupulous people.  We are bent on putting a stop to what has been happening unfortunately and prosecute those involved,” Tabsing said.