Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said PhilHealth funds were not tapped to pay for the vaccines and health workers’ allowances during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recto issued the statement after he was questioned anew during the Development Budget Coordination Committee’s (DBCC) briefing at the Senate about the Department of Finance’s circular ordering PhilHealth to return some P89 billion idle funds to the national treasury.
Earlier, he said unlocking excess fund balances does not impact the viability of participating corporations and their delivery of services, and that this complies with the General Appropriations Act of 2024.
The Finance chief said during the DBCC briefing that the state health insurer’s income has been growing —P4 billion in 2019; P30 billion in 2020; P48 billion in 2021; and P79 billion in 2022.
By the end of 2024, Recto said PhilHealth would have a net income of P61 billion, less the P89 billion transferred to the treasury.
With its income steadily increasing, Senator Grace Poe, finance committee head, said PhilHealth “should now shoulder the remaining payables of the government” to health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Dapat tawagin din ang PhilHealth. Ang dami nilang utang, yung mga hindi nila nababayaran na mga emergency workers, bakit di nila ginamit yung pera na ‘yun),” Poe said.
(We should call PhilHealth. They owe our emergency workers a lot. Why not use their funds for that?)
“Kinukuha na natin sa PhilHealth ngayon ang dapat napunta na sa ating health workers noon pa (We are now getting from PhilHealth what should have been given to our health workers a long time ago),” she added.
Recto said PhilHealth funds were not used for the frontliners’ emergency allowance.
“It is not the obligation of PhilHealth to pay the emergency allowances of our frontline workers. Their reserved funds were not spent during the pandemic,” he said.
“Inako lahat ng government. PhilHealth did not spend on a single vaccine. Philhealth did not spend for a single frontline worker. That’s how it works,” he added.
The DOF chief said that PhilHealth’s emergency funds “should be precisely for something like a pandemic.”
Poe asked why the previous administration opted to loan money to pay medical frontliners instead of using PhilHealth’s funds, Recto simply replied that “it was their decision to borrow the money.”
The Department of Budget and Management earlier released the P27.453-billion budget covering payments for 4,283 COVID-19 Sickness and Death Compensation claims for eligible healthcare and non-healthcare personnel as well as 5,039,926 validated but unpaid health emergency allowance.—LDF, GMA Integrated News
Be the first to comment