While the Supreme Court's (SC) issuance of the temporary restraining order (TRO) halted the future transfer of the P89.9 billion so-called excess funds of PhilHealth to the national treasury, a lawmaker said there is still a need to ascertain why such an accumulation of reserves exists.
The TRO, issued on Tuesday, effectively put a stop to the scheduled transmittal of the remaining P29.9 billion of the P89.9 billion in PhilHealth funds to the national treasury, a decision met with enthusiasm from petitioners and critics of its implementation.
The P89.9 billion in PhilHealth’s excess funds were reportedly an accumulation of the state-run health insurer's dormant funds from 2021 to 2023.
But the bigger question, according to Rep. Rodolfo Ordanes, is why PhilHealth has nearly P90 billion in unused funds provided by the national government as subsidies.
“The temporary restraining order does not address the merits of the case, but it seeks to preserve the status quo as of its issuance,” Ordanes said.
The lawmaker added that while the SC is not supposed to be the “trier of facts,” he expressed hope that it could “ascertain why PhilHealth had the excess funds in the first place” since the case is already under their purview.
“But even if the SC does not find the answers to that, perhaps the justices can point us to the reasons PhilHealth has unused billions from the national government subsidies,” he remarked.
PhilHealth receives an annual subsidy from the national government to cover premium subsidies for indirect contributors, including indigent individuals and senior citizens, under the Universal Health Care (UHC) program.
According to Ordanes, there might have been a grave lapse in oversight of PhilHealth, which is attached to the Department of Health (DoH), due to the “inherent flaw in the UHC Act that serves as the PhilHealth Charter.”
Ordanes hopes that the pending case before the SC will address the "misconception" regarding the true role and purpose of PhilHealth, which he suspects is a factor in why the state insurer has been quite ineffective in managing its funds.
“PhilHealth is not a healthcare agency; it is a finance agency, and therefore, it should be attached to the Department of Finance, not the DoH,” he argued.
Since 2014, PhilHealth has been among the top recipients of the largest yearly subsidies given by the national government to government-owned and/or -controlled corporations (GOCCs).
In 2022, PhilHealth received a record-breaking P80 billion, significantly higher than the P71.3 billion it received in 2021 and last year’s P79 billion. The PhilHealth subsidy for the current year amounted to only P40.3 billion due to its high excess funds.
Earlier, the Department of Finance (DoF) indicated that PhilHealth could end 2024 with roughly P550 billion in unspent funds, despite returning the P89.9 billion to the national treasury.
Last April, the DoF issued Memorandum Circular No. 003-2024, instructing GOCCs, including PhilHealth, to divert their idle funds to the national treasury to finance unprogrammed appropriations in Republic Act No. 11975, or the 2024 General Appropriations Act.
Petitioners have questioned the legality of the memorandum, with some arguing that it constitutes technical malversation or plunder, as the DoF and other proponents would be applying public funds to uses other than those for which PhilHealth funds were appropriated.
The SC has scheduled the hearing on the petitions questioning the legality of the PhilHealth fund transfer for 14 January.