MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was urged by more than sixty healthcare worker groups on Friday to order the P89.9 billion in overages to be returned to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
The organizations emphasized during a news conference that the money should go toward meeting the specific healthcare requirements of the poor and quickly improving health benefits.
“We condemn the Department of Finance’s diversion of P89.9 billion of this excess for purposes other than patient care,” said the organization.
The Philippine Medical Association (PMA)’s former president, Bu Castro, stated that the organization will take legal action to challenge the legitimacy of the President’s State of the Nation Address on Monday if it did not address the return of monies.
The Manila Times was notified on Thursday by the Department of Health (DoH) that P20 billion of the P89.9 billion from PhilHealth was used to pay for the health emergency allowance (HEA). Former Philippine College of Physicians president Maricar Limpin asked the DoH to find alternate funding for the HEA, emphasizing that the monies that were diverted can still be refunded.
