Akbayan Partylist Representative Chel Diokno on Sunday questioned the timing of the Department of Health’s (DOH) inspection of health facilities amid controversy surrounding its non-operational Super Health Centers (SHCs).
Diokno made the pronouncement as Herbosa recently conducted inspection rounds on SHCs in various parts of the country. ‘Why was the inspection only done now, after the issue of ghost health facilities came to light? This should have been done long ago as a form of due diligence, especially since billions of pesos of public money were spent on these projects! ‘ Diokno said.
Around 300 SHCs under the DOH’s Health Facilities Enhancement Program were recently classified as ‘incomplete’ and have not operated since being turned over to their respective local governments.
It should also be noted that a total of P170 billion has been allocated to HFEP infrastructure and equipment in the past decade, rising to about P400 billion if commodities and human resources are included.
Herbosa has since been invited to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, which was formed to investigate the alleged corruption in government infrastructure projects in the past 10 years.
Herbosa is currently facing multiple corruption cases before the Office of the Ombudsman involving P44.6 million worth of mental health drugs.