DAYS after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. announced the return of P60 billion, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is still unsure when it will get the funds from the national treasury.
In a televised public briefing, PhilHealth spokesman Dr. Israel Pargas admitted that they have not been advised yet as to when and how the agency will get the money back.
“Although the President said ‘immediately,’ there is still no mechanism for how this fund will be returned,” Pargas said.
“We don’t know if it will be subject to savings in 2025 or if it will be included in the 2026 budget. We still have no idea how the Bureau of Treasury will return it to us,” he added.
On Saturday, Marcos announced the return of P60 billion in excess funds to PhilHealth.
It can be recalled that the P60 billion in unutilized funds from PhilHealth had previously been transferred to the national treasury.
However, the move has failed to impress health advocacy group Action for Economic Reforms (AER).
In a statement, AER said the return of funds should not absolve the Marcos administration from committing an illegal act.
“We assert that returning the PhilHealth money is a stopgap measure that is intended to pacify public anger over the issue of massive corruption in the budget,” AER said.
“The return of funds does not absolve the administration of its violation of laws and constitutional provisions,” it added.
The group said this is why they believe a definitive ruling from the Supreme Court is necessary.
“Without the SC ruling, the administration could easily repeat this action in the future. The public awaits the SC’s decisive judgment on this matter,” AER said. (Anton Banal/SunStar Philippines)