Malacañang on Friday said it respects the Supreme Court order directing the restoration of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation’s PHP60 billion idle funds that had been moved to the national treasury for 2024.
Executive Secretary Ralph Recto said the Executive branch will follow the ruling and ensure the fund return follows all laws and budget procedures.
“Tulad ng lagi naming sinasabi bago pa man ang desisyon, susunod po ang Ehekutibo sa kautusan ng Korte Suprema, gaya rin ng pagsunod at pagtatalaga namin sa direktiba ng Kongreso noon na gamitin ang natutulog na pondo ng mga GOCCs para sa kapakanan ng taumbayan. He added that “As we have always said even before the decision, the Executive will follow the order of the Supreme Court, just as we complied with the directive of Congress before to use the idle funds of the GOCCs for the benefit of the people.”
Recto said President Bongbong Marcos began steps as early as September 20 to restore PhilHealth funds. He said the move recognized stronger agency performance, wider absorptive capacity, and expanded benefit packages.
Recto reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to use government resources to guarantee that “no Filipino is ever denied healthcare.” He said “Our goal remains the same to make every hard earned peso of the Filipino taxpayer count for our people for their families and for their health.”
He said PhilHealth services were never affected by the fund transfer and no member contributions were touched. He said the correction even supported PhilHealth’s largest expansion of benefits under Universal Health Care, paired with Zero Balance Billing to shield families from rising medical costs.
Recto said the Executive followed the congressional mandate set in the 2024 General Appropriations Act and noted that the Department of Finance role is “solely in revenue generation and debt and deficit management.”
“We believed then, and still believe, that the directive was a common sense approach to optimize government coffers without resorting to additional borrowing or new taxes,” Recto said. He added that before any remittance took place, the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel, the Governance Commission for GOCCs, and the Commission on Audit cleared the transfer. He said the PhilHealth board also approved it.
Presidential Communications Office Acting Secretary Dave Gomez said the Office of the Solicitor General will review the High Court ruling and determine the next step, which may include filing a motion for reconsideration.
