Scams & ‘ghosts’ galore

By Al S. Mendoza

THE Kapa and PhilHealth scams are one and the same.

Two sides of the coin with exact con-clothed features.

They both steal money.

Kapa fleeces people’s hard-earned dough, PhilHealth raids government coffers.

The Kapa is illegal business disguised as religion.

In this benighted country of ours, religion is big business.

For one, religion is tax-free.

For another, it enjoys the “freedom of creed” screen—supposedly.

But just when Kapa thought it was all smooth sailing, its world crumbled.

Fakes can only last for a while.

Their expiry dates come the day they were born.

As the saying goes, there is no such thing as a perfect crime.

Kapa’s religious motif was not crime-proof.

There is only one Vatican in the universe.

Kapa, like the ones before it, was but a poor imitation.

Describing collected money from Kapa members as “donations” was the ruse.

Religions have always acted that way, devising means to skirt the law.

They would succeed at first but, as always, the euphoria would be short-lived.

“Donations” were very tempting to toss into Kapa’s boxes as 30 percent of it would return every end of the month.

They call the 30 percent return a “blessing.”

Didn’t I tell you the devil loves to quote holy words if only to pursue his desires?

So, the more you “donate,” the more “blessings” you receive.

And here’s the catch:  You receive the 30-percent “blessings” for a lifetime.

Kapa’s operation to collect “donations” from its members is illegal because that act was not provided for in its registration papers at the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).

As a practice, Kapa does not give receipts of “donations.”

Kapa, by the government’s last estimate, has billions of “donations” in its vaults.

Only about P100 million has been frozen by SEC.

Already, there is an arrest order for Kapa’s founder, Joel Apolinario, a former disc jockey.

But the chopper-riding Apolinario is in hiding, together with his wife and top officials of Kapa, leaving behind some seven high-end vehicles.

More than a hundred of Kapa’s alleged five million members are now in the dark, wailing, many of them having borrowed each as much as P100,000 to “donate” to Kapa.

My heart bleeds for them.

We go now to PhilHealth.

The modus to steal here is too simple but lucratively rewarding.

While Kapa’s tools for trade are “donations” and “blessings,” PhilHealth’s are “ghosts” and “killings.”

PhilHealth employees, including most likely top brass, connive to produce “ghost” patients, whose names they use to collect for non-existing patients.

They “kill” patients “confined” in hospitals in order to collect PhilHealth fees.

If there are “ghost” employees at City Hall, “ghost” projects in the Napoles scam, there are also “ghost” patients at PhilHealth.

Combine all these “ghosts” used to steal government money could amount to trillions of pesos stashed away from our treasury over the years.

Now can you blame President Duterte if he’s that pissed off with corruption?

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