Better days for PhilHealth members

There are those now asking for the resignation or prosecution of certain public officials in connection with the transfer of excess funds of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to the national treasury.

- MARY ANN LL. REYES

This was after the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional a provision in the 2024 General Appropriations Act which directed the Department of Finance to transfer to the treasury excess funds of government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs), including PhilHealth, as well as a DOF Circular implementing the legal directive.

Pursuant to Special Provision 1(d) of the 2024 GAA under Republic Act 11975, the DOF, under then Finance secretary Ralph Recto instructed PhilHealth to remit to the treasury its fund balance of P89.9 billion. PhilHealth approved the transfer, and P60 billion was remitted in three tranches.

President Marcos subsequently announced that the P60 billion will be returned to PhilHealth.

The SC, in its en banc decision as well as through the separate opinions of a number of its Justices, did not find culpability on the part of both the President and Recto, now Executive Secretary.

But the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) recently urged Congress, the Commission on Audit and the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate how the P60 billion was used by the Marcos administration. It said those who authorized and signed the realignment, as stated in the bicameral conference committee report for the 2025 GAA, should be held accountable.

The bicam committee is currently hammering out a consolidated version of the 2026 GAA bill that includes the restoration of the P60 billion to PhilHealth in keeping with the presidential directive to return the money that was made even before the High Tribunal issued its ruling.

Once ratified by both the Senate and the House, the 2026 GAB is then sent to Malacañang for the President's approval and signing into law — the 2026 GAA— hopefully before end-2025.