Win for accountability

The Supreme Court’s decision last week ordering the return of P60 billion to PhilHealth was more than a legal victory. For many of us who joined the petition, it was a much-needed reminder that public funds, especially those set aside for health care, are not political playthings to be grabbed and repurposed at will.

From the beginning, our goal in this case was straightforward. The law already earmarked PhilHealth’s funds for very specific purposes. Section 11 of the Universal Health Care Act is crystal clear: PhilHealth reserves must be used to increase members’ benefits or reduce their contributions. They are not meant to serve as a national government piggy bank whenever Congress feels like plugging budget holes or funding pet projects.

Yet here we were. Congress inserted a tiny but explosive provision into the 2024 General Appropriations Act. Buried in Special Provision 1(d) of Chapter XLIII was the claim that “excess funds” of government corporations could be swept into the national treasury and then reallocated by the Department of Finance to fund unprogrammed appropriations. 

Using this sleight of hand, P89.9 billion of PhilHealth’s money was suddenly declared “excess,” and P60 billion had already been transferred by February. The remaining P29.9 billion was saved only because we filed a petition and the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order.

Last week, the Court finally settled the matter. What Congress tried to do was unconstitutional. You cannot use the GAA to amend a substantive law like the Universal Health Care Act. You cannot, through a budgetary side note, rewrite a statute that Congress itself had passed years earlier. Article VI, Section 25(2) of the Constitution forbids riders in appropriations laws for a reason. This case is now Exhibit A illustrating this principle.

This ruling landed at exactly the right moment. We are living through scandal after corruption scandal, many involving questionable appropriations tucked into the national budget. And let’s be honest, the P60 billion that Congress yanked from PhilHealth didn’t just vanish into thin air. It went into the pool that funded unprogrammed appropriations, including some of the very infrastructure projects now being exposed as overpriced, unnecessary, or outright bogus. In other words, this ruling may have stopped health care money from helping bankroll the flood control scam.

So yes, this is a victory. It protects PhilHealth’s reserves, it reins in executive discretion, and it reminds Congress that it must be more responsible in allocating the people’s money.

But the work isn’t done. I am still waiting — as are many Filipinos — for the Supreme Court’s ruling on the petition we also filed questioning the confidential funds quietly handed to Vice President Sara Duterte in 2022. That case also turns on constitutional limits on the transfer and use of public money. If the Court applies the same rigor and clarity there, it could place long overdue guardrails on how officials move and spend money collected from hardworking Filipino taxpayers.

For now, though, we celebrate a win. A win for the rule of law, for health care and for every Filipino who believes public funds should be used for the public good and not diverted for personal gain.