Health rackets abound

A scandal that appears worse than the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) and the Unprogrammed Appropriations (UA) fiascos combined is being glossed over by legislators since it would cut into a broad swath of involved public officials.

The Department of Health’s (DoH) Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) was established in 2007 as a key initiative to improve healthcare infrastructure.

Initially funded with a modest P43.5 million, the program’s budget ballooned over the years, reaching P34.7 billion in 2025 and accumulating P241.4 billion in total allocations over 18 years, mirroring the UA’s ballooning budget.

The supposed goal of the scheme is to support local government units in constructing, upgrading, and maintaining health facilities such as hospitals, rural health units, barangay health stations, and super health centers.

This aligns with Republic Act 11223, the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act, which mandates equitable access to quality healthcare for all Filipinos.

The irregularity undermines UHC by leaving communities without local care, forcing long travel and high out-of-pocket costs worth P615 billion in 2024, or 42.7 percent of Filipinos’ health expenditures, far above regional averages.

It has eroded public trust since it diverts resources from PhilHealth, which has accumulated P356 billion in arrears with hospitals, to discretionary funds.

By 2025, HFEP had devolved into a significant infrastructure irregularity, characterized by widespread allegations of corruption, fund misuse, and inefficiency, leading to the proliferation of “ghost hospitals,” or abandoned, incomplete, or non-operational facilities that fail to serve their intended purpose.

The term “ghost hospitals” gained prominence amid revelations during congressional budget hearings for the DoH’s proposed P253-billion allocation for 2026.

As of January 2026, inspections identified questionable sites, such as the unfinished Super Health Center in Marikina City’s Barangay Concepcion Dos.

The Marikina City government, however, claimed it began constructing the center, a four-story multispecialty facility that will include an Autism Center for children with special needs, last October.

No major convictions have been made over the anomaly, but it highlights ongoing calls for systemic reforms to prevent “ghost” projects in critical sectors.

A Commission on Audit (CoA) report flagged P15 billion in uncompleted or non-operational DoH projects, including 123 initiatives worth P11.54 billion that exceeded their contract periods without being finished.

Over the past decade, the DoH released approximately P400 billion to LGUs for HFEP projects, yet audits and investigations revealed that many of these funds did not translate into functional infrastructure.

During the congressional hearings, it was revealed that out of 600 health centers constructed under HFEP, only 200 were operational, leaving 400 idle due to being unfinished, substandard, or lacking essential staff, equipment, and supplies.

Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa likened the program to the DoH’s “version of the flood control scam,” underscoring how massive investments yielded little public benefit.