MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will push through with its scheduled P30 billion remittance to the national treasury on October 16, pending any action of the Supreme Court (SC) or Congress.

This would be the third batch under the Department of Finance’s (DOF) directive to transfer around P89.9 billion in “excess funds” away from PhilHealth, a move that has sparked controversy and already made its way before the SC.

In a Senate committee meeting on Tuesday, August 27, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto confirmed that so far, P30 billion has already been remitted from PhilHealth to the national treasury — P20 billion on May 10 and another P10 billion on August 21.

Another P30 billion is set to be remitted on October 16, along with a final P29.9 billion remittance in November, although Recto said that this could be “earlier depending on the cash flow or cash management of PhilHealth.”

The finance secretary also confirmed that the remittances will continue as planned should there be no directive from the SC or Congress to stop the fund transfers or to return the money.

“There is no [temporary restraining order]. We will abide by the decision of Supreme Court or even by Congress. If Congress passes a law telling us to stop and to give back the money, we will do so. If Supreme Court says the same thing, we will do so,” Recto told the Senate during the committee meeting on the DOF’s 2025 budget.

Recto also insisted that the transfer of the state insurer’s idle funds would cause no harm.

“We also feel that no one is hurt in the sense that PhilHealth has even increased their benefit package by 30%. All case rates went up by 30%,” he added.

Former finance secretaries have also come to the defense of Recto, issuing a statement to support the DOF’s “exercise of its authority to effectively utilize the excess funds of government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs).” They argued that these excess funds could be more productively used to finance other health, education, social service, or infrastructure projects.

“In our view, it is in the public’s best interest for a portion of excess GOCC funds to be mobilized efficiently, rather than imposing additional taxes or increasing public debt that would burden future generations,” they said in a statement that was also disseminated by the Presidential Communications Office.

“Moreover, the DOF has assured that it will only access a part of GOCC excess funds, while maintaining safeguards to ensure GOCCs retain adequate resources well beyond prudent levels, and that it will abide by whatever decision the Supreme Court will make on the case pending before it,” added former finance secretaries Cesar Virata, Roberto de Ocampo, Jose Pardo, Alberto Romulo, Jose Isidro Camacho, Margarito Teves, and Cesar Purisima.

But not everyone is convinced. A group of petitioners — which includes Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, former DOF undersecretary Cielo Magno, and the Philippine Medical Association — have asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order, declare the DOF’s directive as unconstitutional, and return the funds to PhilHealth.

Former SC justice Antonio Carpio and lawyer Howard Calleja, convenors of the 1Sambayan coalition, also urged Recto to reconsider the transfer. In a letter to Recto dated August 22, the coalition argued that “in the Executive Branch, only the President can be authorized by law to transfer savings from one item to another in the appropriations for the Executive Branch under the GAA” or General Appropriations Act.

They also added that the two tranches of fund transfers that have already pushed through “result in technical malversation of public funds and constitute the crime of plunder.”

1Sambayan said: “PhilHealth cannot even claim to have excess or unused funds considering the large deficit in delivering on its primary mandate of providing universal and affordable primary health services. Given the serious health condition of our people today, it is unconscionable to divert funds from promoting primary healthcare of our people.”

I”n view of the foregoing, we hereby demand that you recall the directive…to remit PhilHealth’s unused funds to the national treasury within seven days from receipt thereof. Otherwise, we shall be constrained to take the necessary legal action in upholding our Constitution,” the coalition added. – Rappler.com