Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) president and CEO Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. caught the ire of some senators over his responses during the Senate plenary deliberations of the agency’s budget which they deemed “disrespectful.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada even warned to defer the approval of PhilHealth’s budget due to Ledesma’s answers to the questions raised by Senator JV Ejercito.
“It has come to my attention that there is a head of agency who answers disrespectfully in answering questions of the senators and I would like to warn all those heads of the agencies concerned to be respectful in answering questions coming from the senators,” Estrada said.
“We can defer your budget. We’ve done that before and we can do that again. And this warning goes to all heads of agencies concerned,” he added.
While Estrada did not name the PhilHealth chief, it can be noted that the Senate President Pro Tempore was referring to him because prior to the warning, Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino and Senator Sherwin Gatchalian had already reminded Ledesma to respond in a respectful manner.
The Senate suspended its rules to allow Ledesma to respond directly to the queries raised during the plenary deliberations of the PhilHealth budget. Under the Senate rules, only the budget sponsor, in this case it was Senator Pia Cayetano, should respond to the questions raised by Ejercito.
“May I remind our resource person, especially since we have suspended the rules, to temper the responses with an iota of humility and perhaps answer correctly the questions being propounded by a member of this chamber so that we can have a semblance of sincere discussions here, engagement, with a member of this chamber,” Tolentino said.
This was seconded by Gatchalian.
“May I remind the president of PhilHealth, the resource person to please answer the question with respect and also to temper his voice because Senator JV has been very fair in his questioning and may I remind the resource person to answer the questions directly without any insinuation of disrespect,” Gatchalian said.
Ledesma apologized after Tolentino and Gatchalian’s reminder.
The interpellation of Ejercito centered on the P89.9 billion excess funds which PhilHealth transferred to the National Treasury.
“Bakit hindi nagamit ng PhilHealth… What happened? Why was there P89 billion excess fund that was declared even though a lot of our kababayans are still struggling to pay the hospital bills?” said Ejercito, principal author of the Universal Health Care Act which aims to provide Filipinos with access to affordable high-quality healthcare.
The senator said the Department of Finance and the economic managers cannot be blamed for the excess funds as it was provided under the 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA) that they can sweep excess funds from government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) like PhilHealth.
Ledesma cited three reasons for the existence of the excess funds in PhilHealth.
“First reason is, kaya nagkumpol-kumpol po ‘yung pondo, is because 12 years po hindi na-enhance ang case packages. Number two po, nagkaroon po tayo ng pandemic for two and a half years and because of that po, I think all of us in this room and most of us dahil napaka-serious ‘yung pandemic natakot po lumabas sa bahay at pumunta sa hospital, at pumunta sa mga doktor dahil baka magkaroon ng COVID,” Ledesma said.
“The third reason po is, kasi by law, and Mr. President alam na alam ito ni Senator JV, ‘yung premium contributions were already set so even if we had a lot of funds in place po, tuloy-tuloy pa rin ang pagkokolekta ng premium contributions,” he added.
Ledesma also noted that he just took the helm of PhilHealth in November 2022, but Ejercito said that “two years is long enough.”
“We gave you ample time…Hindi naman puwedeng sabihin na magiging ano pa… learning curve, two years. There is no room, I think Mr. President, to wait because a lot of our people are struggling to pay their medical bills,” Ejercito said.
While he “takes full responsibility” Ledesma cried foul that he is taking all the blame as under his leadership, PhilHealth has become “aggressive” in addressing the concerns in PhilHealth, including the case rates which were not adjusted by his predecessors.
He noted that even President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., other government officials, lawmakers, and doctors acknowledged their accomplishments.
“I agree two years is a long time, but I think po, with all due respect to your honorable senators, and of course, honorable Senator JV, Mr. President, parang huwag namang sabihin na wala kaming ginagawa,” Ledesma said.
Ejercito still pounded on his point and said that in governance, having savings is considered a failure.
“Are we proud na meron tayong P89 billion na reserve funds? Ako po ay matagal na rin sa public service…ang pondo po namin for social service at the end of year dapat inuubos yan dahil kapag may savings ka, ibig sabihin, you’re a failure,” Ejercito said.
“When you have a fund for social services, inuubos po ‘yan dapat. Hindi natin dapat ipagmalaki na meron tayong savings. We are not a private corporation,” he pointed out.
Ledesma agreed with Ejercito’s point, saying he is not proud of PhilHealth’s huge savings.
“I’m the first one among all of us in this room who is not proud that PhilHealth had a P600-billion cash reserve. Pero at the same time, parang mali rin ata to pin the blame fully on me. Why? Kasi again uulitin ko po, itong pera na ‘to, this was piling up through the years… this is all accumulated through a long period of time…So I think it’s wrong to point the finger at me,” Ledesma said.
Despite the list of accomplishments that Ledesma mentioned, including the 30% increase in coverage rates in February 2024 and increase in payments to hospitals, Ejercito stressed that PhilHealth is not being felt by the Filipino people.
After the interpellation, one of the Senate staff inside the plenary session told GMA News Online that Senator Robin Padilla also scolded Ledesma over his responses which they deemed “disrespectful.”
In a text message, Padilla said he has “no right to scold” the secretaries of the government, but he only gave advice to Ledesma like what Tolentino and Gatchalian did.
“Ako po ay nag-advice sa kanya katulad ng ginawa ng mga pahayag ni Senator Win Gatchalian at Majority floor leader Senator Francis Tolentino,” Padilla said.
In a separate text message, Ejercito said he “felt offended and some senators as well with the way…Ledesma answered questions.”
“May pagka presko! Bordering on bastos,” Ejercito said.
The approval of the budget of the Department of Health and PhilHealth was eventually deferred as some senators, who were not present at Tuesday’s deliberations, wanted to raise some questions to the concerned agencies. —LDF, GMA Integrated News
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