SOLICITOR General (SolGen) Menardo Guevarra yesterday defended before the Supreme Court the legality of the transfer of P89.9 billion excess funds of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to the National Treasury.
The magistrates held oral arguments on petitions filed by the groups of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III and Bayan Muna chairperson Neri Colmenares, and 1SAMBAYAN Coalition together with members of the University of the Philippines Law Class 1975.
“There was no dark or sinister plan behind the transfer of the P60 billion fund balance from PhilHealth to the National Treasury,” Guevarra told the magistrates.
He said the fund transfer was a “temporary measure” to address within legal bounds concerns on fund availability for important government programs and projects.
He explained the government’s “common sense” approach, “again within legal bounds,” is meant to temporarily eke out cash needed for the national government’s numerous priority projects.
Guevarra said that from 2021 to 2023, PhilHealth received government subsidies amounting to P239.11 billion, while the total benefit claims of indirect contributors amounted to P149.23 billion.
He said the government subsidies exceeded the total benefit claims of indirect contributors by P27.12 billion in 2021, P23.97 billion in 2022 and P38.79 billion in 2023, or a total of P89.9 billion.
He stressed the accumulation of unused government subsidies had remained unexpended or unutilized.
He appealed to the magistrates to consider the fact that the national government’s debt was already recorded at P15.18 trillion as of last year, meaning every one of the 114 million Filipinos is indebted to the tune of P139, 000 each.
“What then we should do with this unutilized surplus,” Guevarra said, adding it was in this cash-starved context that Congress trained its sight on money that was there but was “not being productively utilized.
Congress, he added, then identified the fund balance of government corporations as a source of additional funds to finance the unprogrammed appropriations.
“This is the legislative wisdom behind the Special Provision No.1 (d) as implemented by DOF Circular No.003-2024. It was the executive and legislative’s way of creating and implementing a fiscal policy to boost economic growth without bloating the government’s indebtedness or burdening the people with new tax measure,” Guevarra explained.
He also said the Finance secretary did not usurp the President’s authority to transfer appropriations to augment any item for the simple reason that the process did not involve “savings” as presently defined in the GAA.
Guevarra asked the SC to spare the President from the suit, saying it is already a settled jurisprudence that the President cannot be sued during his tenure.
“His immunity applies regardless of the nature of the suit against him. I find no reason for the court to depart from this well-settled doctrine,” he added.
The first tranche of the PhilHealth unused funds amounting to P20 billion was released on May 10 last year. This was followed by the second transfer, made on August 21, amounting to P10 billion. Carpio’s petition was filed on the day that the third tranche of the PhilHealth unused funds amounting to P30 billion will be transferred.
Finance Secretary Ralph Recto has defended the transfer, saying government is only doing what Congress has empowered it to do. He assured the public that taking back PhilHealth’s excess funds would not affect its ability to provide services.
