By Atty. Howie Calleja
Organizations require healthy management to achieve sustainable successes. Whatever the case, poorly performing managers can wreak havoc on an organization. Managers may underestimate the impact that their leadership styles can have on the organization’s stakeholders. They may not see — often until it’s too late — how pervasive their influence can be on morale and productivity. This is evident with PHILHEALTH.
Let me remind everyone that In May, ₱20 billion was transferred by PHILHEALTH to the national treasury, followed by P10 billion on Aug. 21. The third tranche, at ₱30 billion, is set to be sent last October. Due to this, the petitioners asked the SC to declare null and void the provision in the General Appropriations Act 2024 and the DOF’s circular, which allowed the transfer of PhilHealth’s excess funds to the national treasury.
In 1SAMBAYAN’s 47-page petition, we pointed out that the fund transfer was unconstitutional, citing Article VI, Section 25 (5) of the 1987 Constitution which states that “no law shall be passed authorizing any transfer of appropriations apart from the President, the Senate President, Speaker, Chief Justice, and heads of Constitutional Commissions for their respective offices … and only the above-mentioned government officials, therefore, are allowed by law to transfer appropriations to augment any item in the general appropriations for their respective offices from savings in other items of their respective appropriations”.
Moreover, our petition argued that since PhilHealth funds are classified as “special funds,” it cannot be transferred unless its purpose has either been abandoned or accomplished under Article VI, Section 29 of the 1987 Constitution. Thus, “the transfer of special PhilHealth funds to the national treasury constitutes technical malversation because Respondents applied public funds to another use other than that for which PhilHealth funds were appropriated”.
Added to this technical blunder, we now hear that the bicameral conference committee of the Philippines decided to allocate zero funds to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) in the 2025 national budget. Due to its substantial reserve fund, which has ballooned to nearly P500 billion came the decision to pull funding from the national budget. Senator Grace Poe, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, argued that PhilHealth should first tap into its reserves before receiving additional subsidies. Poe emphasized that using these funds would address public dissatisfaction regarding the delayed reimbursements for members.
As the Hullabaloo continues, a key concern is whether PhilHealth can efficiently use its reserves to cover the needs of our countrymen. Critics contend that while PhilHealth’s reserves are wide-ranging, their proper utilization remains unclear. If the reserves are tapped too quickly, they could be depleted before long-term structural developments are made, possibly causing an even greater strain on the system.
So how can we now give a “clean bill of health” to Philhealth? I guess, we can’t. All I can say is that this cancer-stricken institution needs intensive treatment to cure its inherent unhealthy condition. Let the chemo therapy begin.
