Kalookan Bishop Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David- Photo from Pablo Virgilio David/Facebook
Kalookan Bishop Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David on Sunday criticized lawmakers for sustaining what he called a patronage-based aid system that violates human dignity, citing the expanded budget for the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients program.
In a Facebook post addressed to members of Congress and the Senate, David said forcing the poor to seek guarantee letters or political endorsements for basic services turns rights into favors.
He said access to health care, education, and social protection should never depend on a politician’s intervention, describing such arrangements as a grave moral failure.
Drawing from Catholic social teaching, David said patronage-based aid erodes human dignity by making citizens dependent on political power instead of institutions.
He singled out the decision of the bicameral conference committee to raise the MAIFIP budget to P51.64 billion from P24.4 billion under the 2026 National Expenditure Program.
David described MAIFIP as a “health pork barrel,” noting that its reliance on guarantee letters places lawmakers in control of who receives medical assistance.
He warned that such systems corrode governance, weaken institutions, and normalize begging as a pathway to public service.
David also said programs requiring post-enactment intervention by legislators violate Supreme Court rulings that struck down pork barrel mechanisms.
He urged lawmakers to deliver medical assistance through rules-based systems such as PhilHealth and Department of Health hospitals without political mediation.
Calling on legislators to renounce both blatant and “soft” forms of pork, David said the poor do not need benefactors but justice rooted in strong and impartial institutions.
