THE former spokesperson of Malacañang questions PhilHealth’s decision to return the allegedly unused funds amounting to nearly 90-B pesos.
Atty. Harry Roque expressed dismay over PhilHealth’s action, especially considering the many Filipinos in need of assistance. Roque suggested that if PhilHealth is unwilling to provide additional benefits, they should refrain from increasing premiums.
“And if you look at the first release it was May 19.”
“May 10. That means they have already released 20 billion back, meanwhile that 20 billion would have been a lot of medicine bought, a lot of sick people would have been given a case rate. Where is the conscience of our leaders in this country?” according to Atty. Harry Roque, Former Presidential Spokesperson.
Former Presidential Spokesperson Atty. Harry Roque expressed his disappointment over the funds returned by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to the Bureau of Treasury, which could have been used by the agency to provide additional benefits to every Filipino.
He stated that this action violates the law, as all PhilHealth funds should be allocated as assistance to the many Filipinos in need.
“If they don’t want to provide additional benefits, then they should haven’t increase the premium,” Roque added.
Recently, PhilHealth implemented a 5 percent increase in premiums for this year, which is supposedly in accordance with the Universal Health Care Law.
According to the former official, those involved in returning the unused PhilHealth funds, which could have benefited needy Filipinos, will be held accountable.
“I will repeat my promise, I will not give up on this, I will push to imprison you because what you did was really wrong. Now that it is for the poor. This could have been to support the lives of the poor, but will you waste it now?”
“Why do you think you can get away from this? No. Wait for your lawsuits this time, because you have wasted 4 times the amount of money for the poor, that is enough for plunder,” he stressed.
Based on PhilHealth’s memorandum, the next tranche of fund returns is scheduled for August 21, 2024, amounting to ten billion pesos.
The third tranche is set for October 16, 2024, with a total of thirty billion pesos.
Another thirty billion pesos will be returned to the Bureau of Treasury by May 26, 2025.
Meanwhile, we are attempting to contact PhilHealth for their side on this issue, but they have not yet responded.
