PHYSICIAN Tony Leachon on Monday filed a case of plunder and technical malversation against Executive Secretary Ralph Recto and several other respondents over the transfer of P60 billion from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to the national treasury.
Leachon said in a media interview that patients were not able to use the amount.
In a statement, Recto called the complaint “harassment” and said the transfer was mandated under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2024.
“The Supreme Court justices themselves said that I have no criminal liability because I ‘simply followed the law and implemented it in good faith,’” Recto said.
The complaint “should not be tossed aside gently. It should be thrown out with great force,” he said in a statement.
Recto insisted that the transfer, done when he was still secretary of the Department of Finance, was mandated by law under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2024.
The “excess” PhilHealth funds have since been restored.
Recto said the case “is nothing but a harassment case by a person masquerading as a health reformer, a perennial applicant for Health offices across several presidencies, but always rejected despite his aggressive self-promotion.”
“His claim that I have financially benefited from said PhilHealth funds is an outright falsehood. This is libelous,” he said.