Metro Manila, Philippines – Executive Secretary Ralph Recto faces a new complaint for plunder and technical malversation, along with a number of Cabinet members, for the transfer of ₱60 billion in state health insurance funds when he was finance chief.
Health advocate Tony Leachon filed the complaint with the office of the ombudsman on Monday, May 25. It also mentioned the “diversion” of ₱107 billion from the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.
Leachon also named as respondents Finance Secretary Frederick Go, Health Secretary Ted Herbosa, former Budget Secretary Rolando Toledo, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) President Edwin Mercado and his predecessor Emmanuel Ledesma, and PDIC President and CEO Roberto Tan.
Other charges are graft and administrative offense for grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service.
“By stripping health financing of its rightful purpose, Recto violated the Constitution and betrayed the people’s right to health,” Leachon wrote on X.
In 2025, the Supreme Court has ordered the return of the ₱60 billion to PhilHealth, saying the special provison in the General Appropriations Act that made the transfer to the national treasury possible was carried out with grave abuse of discretion.
Leachon said the return was too late “for the families already buried in debt and “the patients who never received care.”
He added that the “₱107 billion diversion from PDIC compounded the betrayal, weakening safeguards meant to protect depositors and eroding public trust in financial institutions.”
In December 2025, a group filed complaints against Recto and Ledesma for the unconstitutional fund transfer. A coalition of doctors submitted a separate complaint against the officials in January.
‘Harassment’
In a statement on Monday, May 25, Recto called the new complaint a harassment case.
He maintained that the transfer was mandated by law through the GAA, noting that the Philhealth funds had been returned.
“This 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,” Recto said.
“His claim that I have financially benefitted from said PhilHealth funds is an outright falsehood. This is libelous,” he added.
Despite the return order, the court previously denied petitions to determine Recto’s liability for technical malversation and/or plunder for issuing the order to transfer ₱89.9 billion in state health insurance funds to the national treasury.
