Labor group questions Hontiveros’ TV ads

MANILA, Philippines - Labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) yesterday questioned the television advertisements of state-owned Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), which features Risa Hontiveros, one of its directors and a potential senatorial candidate in 2016.

“We must stress that PhilHealth’s governing board has a fiduciary duty to conserve the hard-earned contributions of workers for current and future benefit payments,” former senator Ernesto Herrera, TUCP president, said.

Herrera said the state health insurance firm’s funds could have been used to pay for the ads of Hontiveros, a defeated senatorial aspirant and a former representative of party-list group Akbayan.

A TV ad costs at least P442,000 plus value-added tax every time it is aired for 30 seconds, he said.

“The members of the board of directors of PhilHealth, even if they are all political appointees, are supposed to insulate the state-run insurer and its funds from partisan political activity,” he added.

Herrera said the money spent by PhilHealth for the TV ads would have been better used to help upgrade the health insurance benefits of members, especially minimum wage workers and salaried employees.

Herrera’s TUCP is different from party-list group TUCP, whose representative in Congress, Raymond Democrito Mendoza, is the former senator’s rival in the labor organization.

The law requires all employees to contribute up to P437.50 per month to PhilHealth, excluding the employer’s share. Overseas Filipino workers as well as self-employed members are required to pay an annual premium of P2,400 to P3,600.

Hontiveros served as a representative of Akbayan in Congress under the party-list system from 2004 to 2010. She ran for the Senate twice – in 2010 and 2013 – and lost on both occasions. She is reportedly eyeing a third senatorial run next year as part of the administration ticket.

President Aquino appointed her to the PhilHealth board. She took her oath on June 30.

The 15-member board has nine ex-officio members and six political appointees of Malacañang.

The nine ex-officio members are Secretaries Janette Garin, Mar Roxas, Corazon Soliman, Rosalinda Baldoz and Cesar Purisima, and Social Security System president Emilio de Quiros Jr., Government Service Insurance System president Robert Vergara, PhilHealth president Alex Padilla and a representative of the National Anti-Poverty Commission.

Aside from Hontiveros, the six political appointees in PhilHealth’s board are Alexander Ayco (family doctor of the Aquinos), Francisco Vicente Lopez, Eddie Dorotan, Jane Sta. Ana and a still-to-be-named independent director of the Monetary Board.

There have also been questions raised about the TV ads of Technical Education and Skills Development Authority chief Joel Villanueva, another administration senatorial hopeful.

Villanueva said he is spending his own money for his advertisements. – With Mayen Jaymalin