Gov't to return P60 B to PhilHealth

The Marcos administration has decided to return P60 billion to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) that it had tagged as excess funds and transferred to the national treasury.

- By ALEXIS ROMERO

In remarks delivered during his visit to Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Manila yesterday, President Marcos acknowledged the lingering concerns about the possible impact of the transfer of excess funds on the benefits provided by PhilHealth.

“No matter how we explain and show that the services covered by PhilHealth are increasing, people still fear that the services may be reduced,” the President told reporters.

“But that cannot be avoided... We are talking about life and death issues here. So, you cannot blame them if they have fears that the transfer of the P60 billion to the national government may reduce the services even if we have proven that the services will not be reduced,” he said.

Marcos said the national government has built up savings from various agencies, mainly from the public works department, whose flood control projects for next year have been scrapped. The agency is under scrutiny over alleged anomalous contracts that resulted in ghost or substandard flood mitigation projects.