DoJ pledges cooperation in US health insurance scam probe
25 04 08 - 13:27
By Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:52:00 04/25/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said on Friday the Philippines will cooperate with the US government in prosecuting individuals and firms responsible for swindling more than $100 million from the US military's health insurance program.
Gonzalez told reporters he was not ruling out the extradition of the individuals involved in the scheme but he warned that the procedures may get lengthy and obfuscating.
"The only downside here would be whatever legal maneuvers their lawyers will do. If the court will issue writs, for example, we have to comply until we can have them resolved," Gonzalez said, recalling the extradition cases involving former Manila representative Mark Jimenez and former Quezon governor Eduardo Rodriguez which took the judiciary several years to decide.
The US and the Philippines, which have an extradition treaty, would do all it can to bring to justice all the firms and individuals responsible for the fraud. A federal judge in Wisconsin recently ordered the Philippines-based Health Visions Corp. to pay back the amount it had allegedly swindled.
Gonzalez also confirmed that the medical care group found responsible for the fraud, which has already been blacklisted by US authorities, operated in Subic, Angeles City and as far as Bacolod City where Philippine and American veterans live.
The scheme, he added, was similar to the one perpetrated by local swindlers on the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
"They overcharge or they manipulate the records to show that this person has been hospitalized when he was not," Gonzalez said.
On the matter of extradition, Gonzalez said both the US and the Philippines have to fulfill certain obligations provided by the treaty before any indicted person is sent to either country.
The extradition hearings would be conducted by the courts and could be appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court, Gonzalez added.