The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is waiting for the decision of the Supreme Court on the petition to block the transfer of its idle funds to the national treasury.

The DOF, through a circular in March, ordered the transfer of PhilHealth’s “unused” funds worth P89.9 billion to finance unprogrammed appropriations. The funds were to fund salary increases and benefits of government works.

Around P30 billion have been remitted by Philhealth as of August.

In an ambush interview after a forum, PhilHealth Finance Policy Sector Senior Vice President Israel Francis Pargas said they are complying with the order.

“We are following the direction or the directive of the Finance secretary because one, this is under one law, the GAA (General Appropriations Act) of 2024. Two, before we returned the funds as per instruction, we asked for guidance from the regulatory offices like the OGCC (Office of the Government Corporate Counsel), GCG (Governance Commission for GOCCs), and COA (Commission on Audit) if it was right for us to comply,” Pargas told reporters.

“So far, we have returned around P30 billion as of now and the amount we need to return is around 89.9 billion,” he said.

Pargas said they will follow the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the petition to stop the agency’s transfer of funds.

“As a government institution, we will follow whatever the decision of the court will be on this issue,” he said.

The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments seeking to stop the transfer of PhilHealth’s excess funds in January 2025.

Senator Koko Pimentel together with a former finance undersecretary, doctors, and public health advocates, filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking to stop the transfer of funds.

The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) requested the Supreme Court to junk the petition since there was “no extreme need” for a temporary restraining order because it was under the wrong premise that the excess funds came from the direct members’ premium contributions.

Recto said previously said in a post-SONA briefing that this order was in line with the budget law, where Congress stated that the DOF has to issue a circular to use funds of Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) which are “possibly just hibernating”. Jaspearl Tan/DMS