SEN. Bong Go lauded the Supreme Court’s statement that it may act on petitions challenging the P89.9-billion transfer of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) funds to the national treasury ahead of oral arguments scheduled for January 2025.
Go, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, was among the first to question the controversial transfer.
He said that protecting public health funds remains his top priority, especially as the nation faces challenges in health care access and delivery.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, the Supreme Court, through its spokesman Camille Sue Mae Ting, announced the possibility of acting on the motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) before oral arguments on petitions seeking to stop the transfer of PhilHealth’s excess funds, citing concerns of “technical malversation and/or plunder.”
“As chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, I am fully committed to ensuring that every peso allocated for health care is spent for health,” Go said.
He plans to continue the discussions in another Senate hearing in November to address concerns related to the fund transfer.
In past hearings, Go raised this issue directly to PhilHealth President Emmanuel Ledesma, saying that if PhilHealth utilized the excess funds properly to expand services to benefit the sick and the needy, then the finance managers would not need to resort to transferring the amounts to be used for other purposes.
“While our fellow citizens are suffering, there is no hospital funding. They are begging, yet you claim your funds are excessive,” Go said.
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