In a press conference on Wednesday, the urban poor community, women’s groups, senior citizen groups, persons with disability sector, the labor sector, and budget and finance experts denounced the Department of Finance’s diversion of P89.9B worth of “unused funds” of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PHIC) to the National Treasury.
Dr. Cielo Magno, former Finance Undersecretary and Associate Professor of the UP School of Economics, rebutted the DOF’s argument that the transferred funds were not members’ contributions but unused government subsidy. She noted that given the principle of risk pooling in social health insurance, all PhilHealth funds belong to their members and should be used for their healthcare, whether direct contributors or indirect contributors (persons with disability, those identified by the DSWD and the beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, senior citizens who are not currently covered by PhilHealth, and the Sangguniang Kabataan Officials).
This was echoed by Dr. Marivic Raquiza, Associate Professor at UP and representative of Social Watch Philippines, who added: “There is no such thing as ‘excess funds’ in PhilHealth because there is no scarcity of Filipinos with illnesses which PhilHealth can and should cover. On the contrary, there are so many ailing Filipinos who are either not yet covered or need additional financial support from PhilHealth.”
Transparency in the budget process is the group’s call secondary to preventing the transfer of the P89.9B Philhealth funds. Dr. Raquiza noted that the insertion of the Special Provision allowing the government to tap GOCC reserve funds, which was the legal basis for DOF’s Circular 2024-003, was done opaquely in the bicameral conference committee for the 2024 budget.
In response to the DOH and Department of Budget and Management (DBM)’s declaration that P27B of the diverted PhilHealth funds would be used for the Health Emergency Allowance (HEA) of frontline health workers, Jillian Roque of the Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK) said that the HEA should have been prioritized in the first place, and should be funded by the DOH budget, rather than the PhilHealth budget. She noted that the HEA has mostly been lodged in the Unprogrammed Appropriations of the National Budget. They called for premium relief for workers in the interim if PhilHealth is unable to deliver benefit expansion immediately.
Senior citizens’ groups represented by Paz Basconcillo (Coalition of Older Persons Association of the Philippines) and Salve Basiano (National Anti-Poverty Commission Basic Sector – Senior Citizens) discussed the position of older persons as indirect contributors, expressing concern that diverting senior citizens’ premiums is tantamount to exposing them to risk to catastrophic health spending and exacerbating their health difficulties.
The persons with disability sector represented by Dr. Jun Bernandino, President of LifeHaven Center for Independent Living, noted that only a small percentage of the persons with disability were covered by PhilHealth, noting: “Bakit kukunin ang pera kung hindi pa nga sapat ang benepisyo para sa amin?”
The group called on the government to immediately return the P20B already remitted to the Treasury and to prevent further diversion of the remaining P70B funds to protect PhilHealth members, especially the poor and vulnerable, from financial risks.
The group announced that it is circulating a citizens’ unity statement calling for the return of the PhilHealth funds, entitled, “Pondo ng PhilHealth gamitin nang tapat. Hindi dapat ilipat. Kaming taumbayan ang inyong katapat!”