Gov't to respect SC decision blocking Philhealth funds transfer to treasury

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Finance (DOF) on Tuesday said it respects the Supreme Court’s (SC) temporary restraining order in relation to the petitions filed questioning the utilization of Philhealth’s idle, unused and excess funds.

“We respect the Supreme Court’s intervention. As a public servant myself, I recognize the right of every citizen to seek redress from the courts. Rest assured that the DOF will fully comply with the order of the Supreme Court,” Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said.

“We give our full cooperation to the Supreme Court as we look forward to the opportunity to shed light on the issues presented during the oral arguments. With this honorable platform, we trust that all issues will be addressed once and for all,” Secretary Recto added.

Recto, however, reiterated that the DOF’s move to sweep the idle, unused and excess funds of government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) is a mandate under Republic Act No. 11975 or the GAA 2024, which was approved by Congress.

“We reiterate that before proceeding with the utilization of GOCC idle funds, our agency exercised due diligence and consulted extensively with the government’s legal experts. These include the Governance Commission for GOCCs, the Government Corporate Counsel, and the Commission on Audit. These efforts were undertaken to ensure full compliance with our laws,” Recto said.

The DOF noted receiving favorable legal opinions on the matter that PhilHealth’s unutilized government subsidies are not part of its reserve funds, nor income that is being restricted by the Universal Health Care Act to be used by the national government as a general fund.

The programs and projects funded by the unused government subsidies to PhilHealth include the health workers’ unpaid allowances during the pandemic; the Salary Standardization VI for government employees released this year; the revised Armed Forces of the Philippines modernization program; the Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project; the Philippine Rural Development Project; the Mindanao Inclusive Agriculture Development Project; and various big-ticket infrastructure projects under the Build Better More program.