This June, reports began to circulate about corruption in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth). Duterte’s former speaker, Harry Roque himself exposed that PhilHealth was scammed hundreds of billions of pesos.

Part of this are the overcharging of hospitals, “upcasing” or listing of cough for instance as pneuonia and duplication of lists and receipts. Among the starkest is the claiming of Wellness Dialysis Center of PhilHealth benefits for fake and deceased patients.

Reports indicate that Philhealth lost P154 billion since 2013. A large chunk or P102 billion of this was charged through overcharging and ghost treatments for fake patients.

In response, Duterte ordered the resignation of PhilHealth president Roy Ferrer only to replace him with his favored henchman. Ret. Brig. Gen. Ricardo Morales’s name has come up despite being unqualified to lead the institution. PhilHealth funds are directly deducted from workers’ wages both in the private and public sector. The large amount of money it is able to collect qualifies it as one of the most advantageous institutions in the civilian bureaucracy.

From time to time, Duterte exposes cases of corruption in his government to make it appear that his reigning neatly. This is not to purge the bureaucracy from corrupt officials but to allow him to interchangeably place his henchmen in various positions, suppress or dismiss from office those who do follow his plans, and place his favored military officials in vacant positions.