Deposit insurance, too

The financial predators in government failed to get their claws on our pension funds to finance the Maharlika sovereign wealth fund or whatever creature this non-performing project turns out to be.

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

They also failed, thanks to a belated restraining order from the Supreme Court, to complete the impounding of P89.9 billion in "unused" subsidy of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. The PhilHealth "savings" were supposed to partly finance the new congressional pork barrel, the unprogrammed appropriations in the 2024 national budget.

In a snit, lawmakers—with President Marcos' approval—scrapped any subsidy for PhilHealth this year.

But they managed to quietly impound "savings" from all other government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), including P107.23 billion from the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.

PDIC funds, like premiums paid to the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System that Marcos 2.0 tried to tap for Maharlika, are sourced from private assets. Is the government's impounding of about half of PDIC funds even legal? And if it is, why should it be?

Finance officials gave the same reasons for the impounding of the PDIC funds that they gave in the case of the PhilHealth funds. Basically, that what's good for "pork"-hungry lawmakers in an election year should be good for us working stiffs from whom all sorts of taxes are automatically deducted.

The amount of deposits covered by PDIC insurance for a distressed bank is limited, at just P500,000 per account.

Last Monday, Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co was stripped of his chairmanship of the powerful committee on appropriations.

The chairmanship of the committee was declared vacant, with no one objecting, by the congressman-son of President Marcos, Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos. Co was allowed the graceful exit of announcing his "resignation" from the post.