Tech Expert EXPOSES the False Transparency Claims of PhilHealth & SSS Systems | Ep. 85

Dic proudly launched AI powered transparency portals for Phil Health and SSS. We now hear many government

SSS. We now hear many government agencies and even LGUs say, "Nandito po kami ngayon para ibahagi ang isa sa mga pinakamahalagang hakbang ng gobyerno sa larangan ng digital governance. The

peach is simple. Type your question and you will finally see where your money goes. Layunin nito na gawing mas

goes. Layunin nito na gawing mas malinaw, mas bukas at mas accessible ang impormasyon tungkol sa kung paano ginagamit ang pera ng bayan.

>> It sounds modern, right? It sounds

serious. But when you open the portals, a different story appears.

Sa ganitong laki ng pondo, acceptable ba na ang transparency natin ay hanggang dashboards and pity charts lang? A

dashboard will never be enough to clean up a system that is used to hiding in the dark. Ito ba ang deserve natin? If

the dark. Ito ba ang deserve natin? If

we are serious about transparency for SSS and feel health, the bar must be hired. What we see right now are mostly

hired. What we see right now are mostly like summaries or just, you know, the output but not the journey. It's like

how how we get to that out to outp.

>> We know that it's possible to make transparent things that don't really matter. The key thing is, are you being

matter. The key thing is, are you being open about the things that do matter?

>> Are these new portals totally useless?

Of course not. They are a small step above silence. But if we call this level

above silence. But if we call this level of disclosure complete transparency, we are lying to ourselves. So let's pause.

Let's define first what is transparency.

>> Anquia is PGMN's first ever tech anchor, a legit tech genius and entrepreneurial millionaire who has spent more than 30 years building solutions in fintech, govtech, AI, cyber security and

blockchain. She is the CEO and founder

blockchain. She is the CEO and founder of Traxon, one of the country's pioneering fintech companies and the chairman of the Cadina Foundation, a global facing blockchain and technology institution. Her career includes senior

institution. Her career includes senior leadership roles in cloud security, digital innovation and industry governance earning her recognition as blockchain champion of 2023 and multiple

honors from the Asia CEO awards. But

here's what matters most. Her intent is pure. She's not here for fame, money, or

pure. She's not here for fame, money, or influence. She's here to help make the

influence. She's here to help make the Philppine government and its institutions work better with technology at the center. This is Ann Quisha and today she is proudly PGNN.

Lately because blown out of proportion na ang corruption.

We now hear many government agencies and even LGU say nandito po kami ngayon para ibahagi ang isa sa mga pinakamahalagang hakbang ng gobyerno sa larangan ng digital governance. Layunin nito na

digital governance. Layunin nito na gawing mas malinaw, mas bukas at mas accessible ang impormasyon tungkol sa kung paano ginagamit ang pera ng bayan.

Bahagi ito ng vision ng bagong Pilipinas kung saan ang bawat Pilipino ay may karapatan at kakayahang makita at maunawahan ang pamamahala ng gobyerno.

Ngayong araw, nais naming i-highlight ang transparency portal.

>> And this month, DIC Powudi launched AI powered transparency portals for Phil Health and SSS hosted on open.gov.ph.

The peach is simple. Type your question and you will finally see where your money goes. It sounds modern, right? It

money goes. It sounds modern, right? It

sounds serious but when you open the portals, a different story appears. Phil

Health's Transparency site greets you with a big promise. Access Phil Health Data with complete transparency. You get

dashboards, charts, and a library of annual reports from 2003 to 2024. All

source from Phil Health's own official records and coaudited statements. SSS

has something similar, a branded transparency portal that surfaces its financial records, benefits data and performance metrics. If you are a casual

performance metrics. If you are a casual viewer, it looks impressive but look closely. Strip away the glossy interface

closely. Strip away the glossy interface and the AI label and what are we left with? Glorified annual reports. Static

with? Glorified annual reports. Static

PDFs turned into colorful dashboards.

The same information na kailangan naman talagang ilabas ng gobyerno. Ver minimum

po ito. Pero now they rewrap those reports as if it were a breakthrough in accountability. So let's pause. Let's

accountability. So let's pause. Let's

define first what is transparency.

>> There's a lot of concepts that has to be considered transparency portal, right?

One of them is you have to see like all the line items, all the details about a certain transaction or a project. What

we see right now are mostly like summaries or just the output but not the journey. How we get to that outcome. So

journey. How we get to that outcome. So

what's the story behind it?

>> We know that it's possible to make transparent things that don't really matter. The key thing is, are you being

matter. The key thing is, are you being open about the things that do matter?

>> International standards define fiscal transparency as openness to the public about how government is structured, how it makes decisions, its accounts, and

the real impact of its spending. It is

not just data online. It is data that is clear, complete, timely and usable for scrutiny. In simple language, tunay na

scrutiny. In simple language, tunay na transparency means you can follow the money from the budget to spending, trace totals down to specific projects, contracts or claims, cross check

numbers, download data, and ask hard questions. And ang importante you see

questions. And ang importante you see the problems early, not 3 years too late tulad ng nangyari ngayon at sa mga unang administrasyon. Without that, you have

administrasyon. Without that, you have presentation not transparency.

>> I am a bit disappointed about this because it doesn't really tell you a lot how you know they got to these numbers but you can see them if you open some kind of annual reports the PDFs because I think that's where they got this data.

Now go back to these portals. Can you

click on the Phil Health spending total and see which hospitals got paid? For

what cases, at what date range? Can you

cross match SSS investment income with a list of actual placements, counterpties, and fees? Most likely hindi po. What you

and fees? Most likely hindi po. What you

get is a summary, a high level chart, a PDF, a finished after the fact documents. Trust the source daw eh. Pag

documents. Trust the source daw eh. Pag

gusto mong sundan ang bawat pisang contribution mo, mababangga ka sa pader.

Walang line by line, walang malinaw na trail. Walang public API na pwedeng

trail. Walang public API na pwedeng i-audit ng actuety o ng media. That is

not transparency mga kapatid. That is a PowerPoint deck living on a government server. And what about the AI?

server. And what about the AI?

>> I mean the AI here is probably fed by the same data that you have in here together with whatever you know content they have on the website. For me, it's just an accessory.

>> Dic promised that AI will help us figure out how something was bought and make it easy for citizens to understand government spending. But AI is only as

government spending. But AI is only as transparent as the data it is. If all

you feed it are the PDFs, the annual reports and prean statistics, then all it can do is restate the same static information. Same, same lang kasi yun

information. Same, same lang kasi yun lang ang alam ng AI. Wala siyang ibang pwedeng maging source ng data kundi yung mga finid na mga files, documents and reports na dati ng gawa. Parang nag-hire

ka lang ng translator para sa financial brochure. Walang bagong truth, walang

brochure. Walang bagong truth, walang tunay na forensic power. AI without

granular, timely, verifiable data is not transparency. It is a narration. Alam ko

transparency. It is a narration. Alam ko

naman na phe lang or ilang weeks pa lang ito sabi nga nila. And that is the deeper problem. We are presenting a

deeper problem. We are presenting a template na possible maging standard ng ibang ahensya pero mali ang standard.

Optics overtooth ba? Para itong hospital na naglalagay ng fancy digital signage pero ayaw naman maglabas ng breakdown ng professional fees, labges at mga coverage. May display pero walang

coverage. May display pero walang accountability. Remember we are talking

accountability. Remember we are talking about institutions that handle hundreds of billions of pesos of assets and reserves. Money that comes directly from

reserves. Money that comes directly from workers salaries and employers contributions. Sa ganitong laki ng

contributions. Sa ganitong laki ng pondo, acceptable ba na ang transparency natin ay hanggang dashboards and pity charts lang? Ito ba ang deserve natin?

charts lang? Ito ba ang deserve natin?

If we are serious about transparency for SSS and feel health, the bar must be higher. Transaction level data for

higher. Transaction level data for contributions, benefits and claims with appropriate privacy safeguards. Contract

level data for investments, IT systems and reimbursements. Clear linkages from

and reimbursements. Clear linkages from the national budget to agency allocations to actual disbersements.

Open machine readable formats that independent analysts can test and criticize. Not just reports online, not

criticize. Not just reports online, not just AI assisted browsing. So, are these new portals totally useless? Of course

not. They are a small step above silence. But if we call this level of

silence. But if we call this level of disclosure complete transparency, we are lying to ourselves. Ang kapalit ng bawat hulog sa SSS at Phil Health ay dugot pawis ng milyong-milyyong Pilipino. The

least government can give in return is not another marketing campaign but real, verifiable, inescapable transparency.

>> I gu part of our initiative in Better Cub is we've been building our own transparency dashboards based on the data that's been out there. And in fact we released our own open data so that anybody can start building their own

portals and using bit of like analysis based on the raw data and one of the tools that we built ourselves is called Albert transparency portal. So this is effort. This is an effort I'm doing

effort. This is an effort I'm doing myself because I've been trying to piece together like the budget. We're already

having discussions with different agencies pushing them to release their data so that we can help them.

>> Anything less is just a dashboard and a dashboard will never be enough to clean up a system that is used to hiding in the dark. May final note sa mga

the dark. May final note sa mga magagalit about this call out saying, "Okay na 'yan, Ann, at least nag-e-effort. Okay na 'yan para sa

nag-e-effort. Okay na 'yan para sa optics. At least kalmado ang taong bayan

optics. At least kalmado ang taong bayan and you give them sense of hope." Okay?

That's why we are where we are now. We

allowed mediocrity. We allowed okay na yan. We are too permissive. Okay na

yan. We are too permissive. Okay na

iyung crumbs and hindi sanay to account our leaders to excellence. And one of the tools that we built ourselves is called Albert of Transparency Porto.

What we have here is the the Philps data. We released their data set of

data. We released their data set of about 5 million records of procurement records and the way we kind of like build is making sense out of that like data set that they publish buuse they're mostly like standard CSV format there's

no segregation but not in an easy browable usable way. For example you want to search a project in Quezon City so you can see all the procurement records that they published. Say here

you got the Quezon City General Hospital and you can see all their vendors, their contractors. You can navigate can see

contractors. You can navigate can see the total of like different categories that they engage with. the total value, the average cost and the total contracts that they publish. You click vendor, you can see the details of the award and who

else they've been like, you know, working with as well. Here we have like the top two Petron and then we got Sunwest. We all know this is a very

Sunwest. We all know this is a very controversial contracter. You can see

controversial contracter. You can see the amount of contracts that they've done for the government. Yes. Sa mga

bagong naupo, nandiyan na yan. Naabutan

niyo na, malala na. But we are not talking about your capability. We are

demanding real accountability at hindi optics. Sasabihin walang fund, walang

optics. Sasabihin walang fund, walang available resources, nagmamadali, can't pay tech experts. Hindi kaya ng sweldo ng mga expert sa private or walang

willing? Well, madaming willing. We all

willing? Well, madaming willing. We all

just need to be humble to ask. Gather

niyo yung tech professionals. Huwag

niyong gagawin lang basta ang vibe coding for optics. Sawa na ang bayan sa ganyan. Madaming IT people nagbabantay

ganyan. Madaming IT people nagbabantay sa anong gagawin niyo para sa bayan.

tulad nila.

>> You would expect some kind of like raw into the data that they're showing, right? I'm not saying this is like

right? I'm not saying this is like completely wrong. I think this is fine.

completely wrong. I think this is fine.

You just need to give us more to interact with, have some kind of like regional distribution. Madaming gustong

regional distribution. Madaming gustong tumulong pero tayo yata ang mali dito.

The mindset is wrong. Ang bayan ay parang household. Tayo ang amo. Tayo ang

parang household. Tayo ang amo. Tayo ang

lumalabas para kumayod at magbigay ng pera sa mga house to manage our house operations. Making sure walang leak ang

operations. Making sure walang leak ang plumbing. Laging may pagkain,

plumbing. Laging may pagkain, namamalengke at bayad ang lahat ng bills. Sa bayan, tayong taxpayers ang

bills. Sa bayan, tayong taxpayers ang bumubuhay sa bansa. Public servants are employed to manage the hard earned money and provide excellence. And not just

pwede na iyan. Let us change our mindset. account the public servants to

mindset. account the public servants to higher standards and real excellence and not just optics. This is Ann Kisha proudly PGMN.