Jan 14th, four long months from now. That’s when the Supreme Court will hear PhilHealth’s P90-billion fund diversion.
It ignored the plea to temporarily restrain government from taking any more health insurance funds. Meantime:
• Government will grab P30 billion on Oct. 16th and P30 billion in November. It already took P10 billion in May and P20 billion in August. That’s despite three pending cases with the SC, one on the illegality of a 2024 budget law proviso and two on the consequent P90-billion transfer.
• Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez urged the SC to advance its hearing to October. “Otherwise, it will be too late. The entire P90 billion would’ve been remitted to the Treasury by November. Nagastos na lahat ng pondo pagsapit ng Enero. Wala nang ibabalik sa PhilHealth. The hearing will have lost its usefulness. Aanhin pa ang damo ku’ng patay na ang kabayo?”
• PhilHealth appointees will continue to collect higher monthly members’ contributions that started last Jan. 1st.
• They will still be under no obligation to improve benefits for contributing and indigent members. Top appointee-president Emmanuel Ledesma told Congress Tuesday he was “being a good soldier in obeying [Bongbong Marcos’] order to remit the P90 billion.”
• A 2025 budget law would have been passed by Jan 14th. That law can repeat the very issues under question at the SC. That is, Congress’ unconstitutional increase of Malacañang’s budget proposal, plus the unconstitutional revision of old laws by a new budget enactment. Constitutionalist Rodriguez recalled a decades-long SC ruling against ex-budget secretary Salvador Enriquez. That is, “a provision in an appropriations act cannot be used to repeal or amend other laws.”
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Filipino lawmen posted fanmeet-style selfies with arrestee Alice Guo in Indonesia. Bongbong Marcos tolerated it as new normal: “Aren’t we the world’s selfie capital?”
If so, could there be 7,000 (20,000?) selfies of cops summarily executing drug suspects in 2016-2022?
Even PNP chief Rommel Marbil and Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos posed with Guo. They smiled wide as she made peace signs with hands on chin.
Did Marbil break PNP Operational Procedures? Section 6.4, Custodial Investigation, Subsection C, Transporting Persons Under Custody requires subject to be attired as detainee and handcuffed to prevent escape or endangerment of officers.
Abalos bragged that government spent nothing since he borrowed a friend’s personal Gulfstream jet to fetch Guo.
Did he violate the 1989 Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards? Paragraph 3(d) Solicitation or Acceptance of Gifts proscribes:
“Public officials and employees shall not solicit or accept, directly or indirectly, any gift, gratuity, favor, entertainment, loan or anything of monetary value from any person in the course of their official duties or in connection with any operation being regulated by, or any transaction which may be affected by the functions of their office.”
A Gulfstream costs $10,000 per hour to operate. For an eight-hour Manila-Jakarta roundtrip that’s $80,000 or P4.56 million.
A bad start for one reportedly planning a senatorial run. Or one who used the jet earlier that day in Naga City.
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Speaking of which, Philippine general aviation is turning into political aviation. Personal jets and choppers of dynastic congressmen are crowding out charter flights, even air ambulances.
Government earns taxes and license fees from gen-av. The International Civil Aviation Organization differentiates it from commercial airlines.
But politicos and bureaucrats are now given priority in airport takeoffs and landings. At NAIA, they’ve gained control of hangars. Business and leisure travelers cannot just fly off anytime, unlike before. A charter operator who requests a takeoff slot in the morning would be lucky to get it by nightfall.
That defeats the purpose of instant flight that gen-av offers.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines makes things doubly difficult. It now requires gen-av operators to “secure an Airport Clearance from the respective airport managers at least 72 hours before the intended flight.”
Three days notice to get airport departure and arrival clearance? What’s the point of chartering? Just buy a commercial airline ticket, then commute by road.
CAAP wants to sit pretty at the expense of tax and license paying operators. But it kowtows to political and bureaucratic patrons. Very unfriendly to business.
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