The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday has required the Executive department and Congress to comment on the petition challenging the constitutionality of the provision on "unprogrammed appropriations (UA)" in the 2024 national budget diverting to the national treasury the P89.9 billion reserve funds of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).

SC spokersperson Atty. Camille Sue Mae L. Ting said those named as respondents in the petition were given 10 days from receipt of the resolution to file their comments.

Required by the high bench to file their comments were Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto, the House of Representatives represented by Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, the Senate represented by Senate President Francis Chiz Escudero; Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin; and PhilHealth represented by its President Emmanuel Ledesma Jr.

To recall, Recto said last month that of the P89.9 billion PhilHealth’s reserve funds, P20 billion has been transmitted to the national treasury while the rest will be released on a staggered basis.

The SC was told by the petitioners that “the pilfering of the reserve funds is a grave disservice to the Filipino people who depend on PhilHealth for financial risk protection from illness and who are still heavily burdened by out-of-pocket health expenditure.”

They said that with consistently rising inflation and worsening social conditions, it is imperative that these funds be used exclusively for the implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act, the expansion of benefit packages, and the reduction of premium contributions.