In the House version of the national budget, congressmen allotted a P74.4-billion subsidy for PhilHealth. The Senate, following the rationale of Finance Secretary Ralph Recto on transferring PhilHealth savings, prevailed, however, deleting the PhilHealth subsidy in the bicameral conference committee, going against the wishes of Sen. JV Ejercito who had sponsored the UHC Law.

Is President Marcos aware of what Secretary Recto is doing, transferring PhilHealth savings to the National Treasury, withdrawing them, and spending them for purposes other than that provided by law based on a mere department circular, without the approval of the President? All told, Recto had succeeded in transferring P60 billion before the Supreme Court stopped him, leaving P29.9 billion, or nearly P30 billion, with PhilHealth.

That was the P30-billion question three retired CoA auditors requested me to ask, with all due respect, because they heard of certain individuals preparing to file a plunder case against Recto for violation of Presidential Decree 1445, or the Auditing Code of the Philippines. If that case materializes, certainly that question will be asked of the President.

Former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, in a press interview after the Supreme Court had earlier struck down the pork barrel system, said: “Pork thrives in the framework of patronage politics” and “unless we change our politics, pork will always be a necessity.”

In striking down the pork barrel system, the Court said the practices specified should “never again be adopted in any system of governance and under any name or form.”

But at this time with the midterm elections a few months away in May 2025, there is the thought of the pork barrel coming out in some other form.

Let not greed drive our misguided leaders to move crucial projects from the programmed to the unprogrammed. This is not only questionable but, worse, it will undermine the President’s commitment to inclusive development and fiscal prudence.

Unprogrammed funds, mostly eleventh-hour insertions in the 2025 national budget, reached P532 billion, bloating the budget to an unprecedented P6.532 trillion.

A huge amount was provided to the Department of Public Works and Highways at P95 billion. The DPWH is the politicians’ main source of funding for their personally chosen projects.

When I opened my column last Thursday, I gamely said that “something beautiful and sweet was happening in Congress,” but this turned into something “very ugly and bitter” when the bicam committee deleted the subsidy for PhilHealth.

It is on official record now the congressmen are more kind, generous, and caring for the poor, indigents, persons with disability and the sick in hospitals than the senators.

In the House version of the budget, the congressmen allotted PhilHealth a P744.4-billion subsidy.

This was reduced by the Senate in its version and with the obvious inclination of the chamber’s finance leadership to “sing the same tune that Recto has been singing along,” transferring and utilizing PhilHealth funds for something other than that required by the UHC Act. Is this not an act of undermining the President’s commitment to inclusive development? Is this not an act of fiscal impudence?

The subsidy for the health insurance agency was completely deleted because a senator found out that the state insurer still had P600 billion in “reserve funds.”

The Senate found that “anomalous” considering that PhilHealth cannot fully implement the Universal Health Care Act.

According to Sen. Grace Poe, the P600 billion in reserve funds was “just deposited in a bank and its income is less than the rate of inflation, so the government is still at a loss.”

The foregoing observations is the fault of the PhilHealth CEO. With all due respect, the reason of the senator for deleting the subsidy for PhilHealth is silly and reprehensible. Why let the poor, sick, indigent and persons with disability suffer for the lapses of the PhilHealth management?

The proposed national budget of P6.352 trillion is 9.5 percent higher than this year’s P5.268 trillion. The Palace said the President is scheduled to sign the budget in the morning of 20 December.