The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) views the recent return of P60 billion in so-called “excess” funds as an opportunity to strengthen and expand its services to members.

In a Monday morning interview, PhilHealth spokesperson Israel Pargas said the reinstated funds will help reinforce the long-term sustainability of the state health insurer.

“It's a welcome respite for us because this will support all our programs to ensure the sustainability of our program—this includes the expansion of our benefits and improvement of our service,” he said.

On Friday, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down a special provision in the 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA), as well as the Department of Finance circular issued under then-Secretary Ralph Recto, which allowed the transfer of P89.9 billion from PhilHealth to the National Treasury. The Court voided the fund sweep, which had classified the amount as “excess” and therefore subject to remittance.

Special Provision 1(d) authorized the return of the supposed excess funds of government-owned and controlled corporations, while the DOF circular ordered PhilHealth to remit P89.9 billion. Only P60 billion was actually transferred before the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order that halted the remittance of the remaining P29.9 billion.

Pargas emphasized that the ruling places an added responsibility on PhilHealth to safeguard public trust.

“This will also pose a challenge for PhilHealth because we have to protect the trust given to us by the Supreme Court and the people by seeing to it that every peso that is given to us as a contribution must be accompanied by benefits to ensure the health of the people,” he said.

Pargas earlier noted that PhilHealth’s operations remained robust even after the remittance, with benefit payments reaching P250 billion in 2025 — an 83 percent increase year-on-year.

"So even though P60 billion was taken, we continued to expand and improve services," he said.

Recto, who ordered the remittance when he was Finance Secretary, maintained that the directive was lawful and anchored on the budget provisions now invalidated by the Court.

“We reiterate that the Executive simply complied with the congressional mandate under the 2024 GAA, and that the Department of Finance’s role is solely in revenue generation and debt and deficit management. We believed then, and still believe, that the directive was a common-sense approach to optimize government coffers without resorting to additional borrowing or new taxes,” Recto said in a statement Friday.

He added that he respects the Court’s ruling and insisted that PhilHealth’s services were never compromised and that member contributions remained untouched.