A vacuum now exists in the health service as poor Filipinos do not know where to turn since, Nosy Tarsee has learned, apparently the Department of Health has put on hold the Medical Assistance for Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) program following questions raised about the 2026 national budget.

Critics have charged that this year’s budget is pork-riddled, after the notorious bicameral conference committee ramped up aid allocations to compensate for the loss of complex projects that were a source of pork.

The nebulous Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) received P64 billion, the MAIFIP received close to P52 billion, and the equally vague Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) got P22.4 billion.

The outrage over the 2025 budget has not died down, forcing legislators to freeze some soft pork programs.

The MAIFIP was put on hold and there is talk the guarantee letters of politicians will not be honored anymore.

Without the MAIFIP, the poor can only rely on the benefits from the ransacked PhilHealth which many of them said only provides about 10 percent of their medical expenses.

With the supposed safeguards in place for the aid programs, politicians can refer applicants only to the DSWD. “It’s up to them. I don’t intervene. I don’t say anything. Because while I criticize it, I also see that people really have a need,” said Caloocan Rep. Egay Erice.

“We’re not really issuing a guarantee letter. We’re just writing to the Department of Health to request guarantee letters for our constituents. For example, a mayor can write, an ordinary citizen can write,” Erice explained.

“I don’t think aid programs can be freed from the intervention of politicians. Because it’s difficult. The national government doesn’t really have the absorptive capacity to reach the masses. They don’t have that capability. So they will need a kind of medium,” he noted.

Despite the Universal Health Care Law, the government system is not designed for full health care coverage.

Now the sick are being told to go to the Office of the President to seek assistance, as the aid from their elected officials has been suspended.

During the interregnum, the poor are left without recourse or anyone to turn to for help, creating fertile ground for widespread unrest.