Beware the dummies! (2)

PhilHealth fund transfer is worse than Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). Recto defied Supreme Court (SC) prohibition. Department of Finance (DoF) and Department of Budget and Management (DBM) are in a mess.

This is worrisome because the recruitment of Filipino workers for overseas employment cannot be undertaken through direct recruitment by foreign entities. Allowing this to continue undermines the Filipino workforce’s intended economic benefits and weakens national regulations’ effectiveness.

The expansion plans of Carnival Cruise Line, including the development of a 65-acre water theme park in the Bahamas, highlights the significant opportunities and challenges faced by the local workforce because inasmuch as it is in our interest to ensure the employment of more Filipinos abroad, it should not be at the cost of liberalizing the regulatory protections mandated by law.

DoF Circular 003-2024 which allows unutilized funds of PhilHealth worth P89.9 billion to be returned to the unprogrammed appropriation of the National Budget is worse than Budget Circular 541-2012 of Florencio Abad. Abad’s circular had presidential approval, but was still very bad; Recto’s circular is worse on at least two counts: first, it has no presidential approval; it directs the use of what is by nature a trust fund.

Recto defied the SC prohibition under the second paragraph of the Court’s decision declaring the DAP unconstitutional:

“For as long as the nation adheres to the rule of law, any of the multifarious unconstitutional methods and mechanism the Court has herein pointed out should never again be adopted in any system of governance or similarly, by any influence or effect.

“Disconcerting as it is to think that a system so constitutionally unsound has monumentally endured, the Court urges the people and its co-stewards in government to look forward with the optimism of change and the awareness of the past…”

The DoF and the DBM are in a mess. Both have lost their credibility and damaged the trust and confidence of the Filipino people in their competence to differentiate between what is allowable and what is not under the law and the Constitution.

Both Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman and Finance Secretary Ralph Recto can expect a demand for the return of the P89.9 billion to PhilHealth for the Filipino people’s healthcare. (To be continued)