MANILA – The Supreme Court en banc on Monday ordered oral arguments in January 2025 for two petitions questioning the return of unused reserve funds of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to the national treasury.
"The Court consolidated the two cases and set the oral arguments to January 14, 2025 at 2 p.m. Preliminary conference will be scheduled before then," court spokesperson Camille Ting said.
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) earlier asked the SC to dismiss the petition, saying the transfer is legal and that the petition was flawed due to several procedural and substantive issues.
The first petition filed by several individuals, including Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III, challenged Section 1(d) of XLIII [43] of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) 2024 and Department of Finance (DOF) Circular 003-2023, which allow the return of excess reserve funds of government-owned and controlled corporations to the national treasury to fund unprogrammed appropriations.
The second petition was filed by militant groups seeking to nullify the Presidential Certification of Urgency for House Bill No. 8980 or the General Appropriations Bill (for 2024) absent the existence of any calamity or emergency under Article VI, Section 26(2) of the Constitution.
Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said the circulars issued by the DOF were constitutional, as these did not violate the people’s right to health.
He disputed the assertion of petitioners that the transfer of PhilHealth’s idle funds was “supposedly the cause of the continued out-of-pocket expenditures of the population” or refrained the public from availing of health services.
Guevarra said the income of PhilHealth is more than enough to cover the payment of benefit claims and operating expenses.
“The petition failed to show that the people’s access to health services have been affected. In fact, PhilHealth has even expanded the benefits of its members,” the OSG reply added. (PNA)
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