Metro Manila, Philippines – Despite significant opposition and a Supreme Court case aimed at halting the transfer, the government health insurer has remitted ₱10 billion more of excess funds to the Treasury, a Cabinet official said.
The transfer of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) fund was made on Wednesday, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto confirmed to NewsWatch Plus.
“Yes, it was remitted to the treasury as scheduled,” Recto said in a text message on Thursday, Aug. 22.
This is the second of four tranches worth a total of ₱89.9 billion. Phil transferred ₱20 billion in May. The remaining ₱30 billion and ₱29.9 billion will be remitted in October and November, respectively.
Recto has insisted that the transfers are legal, citing a special provision in the budget law that permits the use of the “fund balance” from government-owned or -controlled corporations to finance unprogrammed projects, including infrastructure and social services. The Department of Finance issued a circular to implement this provision.
Earlier this month, a group of petitioners led by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III challenged the constitutionality of these actions before the Supreme Court. They said these exceeded the congressional prerogative to appropriate funds and violate the Universal Health Care Act, which states that PhilHealth’s reserve funds “shall be used to increase the program’s benefits and to decrease the amount of members’ contributions.”
The petitioners urged the high court to order the return of the funds to PhilHealth and to halt further transfers.
‘Alarming and bad news’
Pending the Supreme Court decision, Pimentel called the latest transfer “alarming and bad news.”
“We can only appeal to the executive branch to abandon and reverse their plan. But we still have hope that we can force the reversal of the current action of the executive branch since there is a pending case before the Supreme Court,” Pimentel said.
Senator JV Ejercito, author and principal sponsor of the UHC law, said PhilHealth funds should be used exclusively for health programs and projects.
“While we do not blame the DOF (Department of Finance) in their pursuit of locating idle funds to further other programs of the government, we appeal to retain to Philhealth their remaining excess funds. Let us give PhilHealth the means to effectively and efficiently perform their mandate,” Ejercito said.
