Amid the public uproar over state firm Philippine Health Insurance Corporation’s (PhilHealth) surrender of P89.9 billion of its reserve fund to pay for unprogrammed items in the national budget, the extravagant spending in the agency comes as a shock.

The “excess fund” as the Department of Finance (DoF) termed it was the cash reserve of the agency that should have gone to expanding its services to meet what is mandated under the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act.

Instead of studying ways to efficiently use the agency’s money to make healthcare services accessible to the poor, the agency leadership, incredibly, was prepared to splurge for an anniversary bacchanalia.

Discussed by the agency’s board was spending a dismaying P37.5 million for tokens to mark PhilHealth’s 30th anniversary celebration.

However, Health Secretary Ted Herbosa said the board decided to cancel the purchases except for the commemorative stamps.

Considering the problems that it has found itself in, the agency’s officials should not have even thought of the lavish anniversary spending. Nonetheless, Herbosa is tangibly dismayed over what’s happening at PhilHealth.

He has demanded the PhilHealth leadership fix the problem with its budget that resulted in the hoarding of P600 billion in reserve funds, mostly from tobacco excise taxes.

“Let me be clear. The board has been giving instructions to management to fix its act. The management has to fix its act. I think they have the money. So clearly, management is failing,” he said.

Herbosa did not mince words about a PhilHealth overhaul.

“So, I want to ask you, do you believe the management of PhilHealth should be changed? I think so,” Herbosa, the PhilHealth board chair, said.

Herbosa cited the need for PhilHealth to improve its efficiency. He attributed Congress’s withdrawal of its P74-billion government subsidy to the failures of the agency.

“Legislators know that what you’re supposed to do is pay the health benefits of your members. And if you’re not doing that and putting the money in the bank instead, why should a subsidy be given and reward it for failing?” he said.

Herbosa pinpointed the management of PhilHealth as being responsible for the agency’s shortcomings.

“The people that’s been there is management. They’ve been there for years. So management needs to straighten this up, follow the directives and the strategies directed by the board,” Herbosa said.

“So it’s about time to use that excess money, which the government also gave, to use now for continuing the implementation of the universal health care and for indirect members,” he added.

Senator JV Ejercito, the principal sponsor of the UHC Act, wanted an oversight committee inquiry to assess the law’s implementation.

“It’s been five years since its enactment; we need to identify the gaps and address them,” he said.

It is disheartening that PhilHealth is hoarding money instead of using it to reach the UHC’s goal of free medication and hospitalization for Filipinos.

It is about time the incompetents at PhilHealth made way for those who know what they are doing to address the needs of the majority of Filipinos who rely on the government for their health needs.