JV open to inviting budget watchdogs to bicam hearings

MANILA, Philippines — Senate finance committee chairman JV Ejercito is open to inviting civil society organizations (CSOs) to the bicameral conference committee hearings on the proposed P7.2-trillion national budget for 2027, after the groups flagged up to P1 trillion in potential pork barrel funds in the House of Representatives’ version of the spending bill.

During a public consultation on Monday, the People’s Budget Coalition flagged P695 billion in “hard pork” for “politicized infrastructure,” P210 billion in “soft pork” for “patronage-driven ayuda” and P112 billion in “shadow pork” tucked into unprogrammed appropriations.

Before the hearing adjourned, Sen. Panfilo Lacson invited the groups to participate in the bicameral conference committee hearings, where lawmakers reconcile conflicting provisions in the House and Senate versions of the General Appropriations Bill.

“Without you, we can’t do it. Our staff is good but we can’t comb all the items in the budget. You are our multiplier effect,” Lacson told the CSO representatives.

Aside from the alleged discretionary funds, the proposed allocation for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) were also flagged by certain health groups.

Dr. Alberto Ong, co-convenor of the Health Professionals Alliance After COVID-19, warned that PhilHealth’s proposed P74.4-billion allocation was inadequate to meet Filipinos’ health care needs.

“This amount is projected to sustain PhilHealth only until approximately March 2027. And after that, the burden of health care costs will increasingly fall on patients themselves... This is not an isolated budgetary shortfall. The chronic underfunding of PhilHealth represents a continuing failure to fulfill the government’s obligations under the Universal Health Care Act,” Ong said.

The groups urged the Senate to increase PhilHealth’s subsidy to between P244 billion and P376 billion to expand benefits and help direct and indirect contributors pay for medical expenses after the subsidy was reduced from P129.8 billion in 2026 to P74.4 billion in the executive’s proposed 2027 budget.

The House did not increase the allocation, opting instead to nearly double the budget for the Department of Health’s Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) program to P49.2 billion from P24 billion.

Action for Economic Reforms health team official Paula Mae Tanquieng, a counsel for petitioners in the Supreme Court case involving the impounded PhilHealth funds, criticized the decision to expand discretionary medical assistance while leaving PhilHealth inadequately funded.

“While PhilHealth faces a massive funding gap, the House continues to expand discretionary medical assistance programs, when we are told that there is not enough money for PhilHealth,” she said” - Rhodina Villanueva