Using idle funds of Government-Owned and Control Corporations (GOCCs) will help the government achieve its economic growth target for 2024, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said Tuesday.

During the post - State of the Nation Address (SONA) discussion, Recto explained that studies by the DOF shows that gross domestic product (GDP) will increase by .8 percentage points when the funds for the unprogrammed projects of GOCCs like the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will support projects of other agencies.

"In our investigation, we saw that it will further boost our economic growth by more or less .8 percent, which means it will be easier for us to achieve our 6 to 6.5 percent growth rate target for this year," he said.

"It is important to use the unprogrammed funds, like for example the foreign assisted project of the President which will have an opportunity cost and interest, even if we don't benefit with the project because of the delay," he added.

Recto explained that the DOF's move to issue a memorandum circular directing PhilHealth to remit its unused government subsidies to the national treasury was based on the directive from Congress.

"We checked if the order of Congress has merit, and we saw that it is true that there are at least 200 billion pesos that are sleeping in two GOCCs of the government, one of them is the (Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation) PDIC; and the PhilHealth with roughly 89.9 billion pesos," he said.

Recto said aside from an increase in economic growth the use of unused funds from GOCCs "can also create 600,000 jobs".

He also assures that the "health program under the PhilHealth will not be affected" by the return of unutilized funds to the treasury.

"In fact, the president mentioned yesterday during the SONA that the health programs under PhilHealth will increase. More than 500 billion pesos worth of funds were sleeping under PhilHealth, even if we remove the 89.9 billion, they still have 500 billion pesos ? good for the next three years or more," he said. Robina Asido/DMS