Budget watchdogs have sounded the alarm after state firm Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) indicated that it had transferred P30 billion of its contested P89.9 billion in excess funds to the National Treasury.

The reallocation is being compared to the notorious Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional in 2014. In a circular, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto ordered PhilHealth to surrender the funds to the National Treasury.

PhilHealth president Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said the agency was following the directive, which could only be halted through a Supreme Court temporary restraining order (TRO).

Those keeping a close eye on the budget protested the DoF directive since it violates provisions of the Universal Health Care Act, which specifies that excess or reserve PhilHealth funds could be used solely to improve members’ benefits or cut their monthly premiums.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the reallocated money will be used to finance 11 priority projects under unprogrammed appropriations worth P203 billion.

Department of Budget and Management (DBM) records showed the reallocated funds will be distributed to:

* Government counterpart of foreign-assisted projects (P51.7 billion);

* Personnel benefits (P27.6 billion);

* Public Health Emergency Benefits and Allowances for Health Care and Non-healthcare Workers (P27.7 billion);

* National Economic and Development Authority-Philippine Statistics Agency: Community-Based Monitoring System (P3.6 billion);

* Payment of right-of-way (P3 billion);

* Maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation of infrastructure facilities (P6 billion);

* Proposed Salary Standardization Law VI (P40 billion);

* Fiscal support arrearages for Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) Program (P415 million);

* Support to Barangay Development Program of NTF-ELCAC (P6.5 billion);

* Department of Public Works and Highway’s various projects (P26.6 billion); and

* Revised Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program (P10 billion).

According to the DoF, the next target for funds retrieval will be P110 billion in the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Recto and Pangandaman should have consulted Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on the juggling of the budget.

As Associate Justice, Bersamin was the “ponente” or author of the 2014 Supreme Court ruling that declared the DAP unconstitutional. He later became Chief Justice.

The landmark ruling required the “authors, proponents, and implementors” of the illegal program to be held accountable.

Bersamin would know how efforts to create lump sums are used to resurrect the pork barrel system that the SC outlawed in its decision.

Discretionary or unprogrammed funds, such as the huge diversions through the collusion of Recto and Pangandaman, are preferred sources of slush funds.

The DAP was a classic example of the abuse of Malacañang’s authority to reallocate funds.

Some P150 billion was misappropriated from the national budget to build up the DAP, which was supposedly an economic stimulus program. It became a slush fund of the Liberal Party to underwrite the impeachment and subsequent ouster of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Between 2011 and 2013, the DAP list showed 116 projects funded with P144.4 billion that came mainly from so-called agency savings.

The SC, in its ruling, indicated that while the executive branch has the power to implement measures to stimulate the economy, creating the DAP violated the doctrine of separation of powers due to the Palace declaring savings before the end of the fiscal year and without complying with the statutory definition of savings contained in the budget law.

Through Recto’s directive, savings are now termed “excess funds” and are being retrieved for the same objectives as the DAP of creating discretionary lump sums.