Estrada warns: ‘Disrespectful’ answers may lead to budget deferment

MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada issued a stern warning Tuesday night to resource persons who answer “disrespectfully” during budget hearings, warning that these agencies could get their budget deferred due to misbehavior.

Estrada raised this warning at the Senate’s marathon plenary debates on the proposed 2025 funding of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).

“It has come to my attention that there is a head of agency who answers disrespectfully towards — in answering questions of senators, and I would like to warn all those heads of the agencies concerned to be respectful in answering questions coming from the senators,” said Estrada.

“We can defer your budget, we’ve done that before and we can do that again. And this warning goes to all heads of agencies concerned,” he emphasized.

Prior to Estrada’s remarks, Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino issued a reminder to Philhealth president and chief executive officer (CEO) Emmanuel Ledesma Jr.

“May I remind our resource person especially since we have suspended the rules, to temper the responses with an iota of humility and perhaps answer correctly the questions being propounded by a member of this chamber so that we can have a semblance of a sincere discussions here, engagement, with a member of this chamber,” said Tolentino.

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Ledesma was allowed to speak directly during the budget deliberations after the chamber agreed to temporarily suspend its rules. The usual process is that the sponsor of the agency’s budget speaks on behalf of the firm.

After Tolentino issued his reminder, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian — who was the presiding officer at that time —  interjected.

“May I remind the president of PhilHealth, the resource person to please answer the question with respect and also to temper his voice. Because Senator JV has been very fair in his questioning and may I remind the resource person to answer the questions directly without any insinuation of disrespect,” Gatchalian said.

Ledesma immediately apologized to the “honorable plenary.”

All these came after Sen. JV Ejercito, during his interpellations, asked why PhilHealth did not use its P89.9 billion excess funds.

“Kapag may savings ka, ibig sabihin you’re a failure (If you have savings, it means you’re a failure),” he said.

“Ang daming naghihirap, ang daming nahihirapang bumili ng gamot nakapila, magbayad ng ospital. Ang laki laki ng savings mo di mo ginamit. Ganun po kami sa gobyerno. When you have a fund for social services, inuubos po ‘yan dapat. Hindi natin dapat ipagmalaki na meron tayong savings. We are not a private corporation,” Ejercito then pointed out.

(So many people are struggling to buy medicine, lining up, trying to pay hospital bills. You have such a huge amount of savings that you didn’t use. That’s how we operate in government. When you have a fund for social services, it should be fully spent. We shouldn’t be proud to have savings. We are not a private corporation.)

For his part, Ledesma said it was not fair to put the blame on him solely.

“Bakit ganon, may P89.9 billion? I’m the first one among all of us in this room who is not proud that PhilHealth has a — had a P600 billion cash reserve. Now, pero at the same time, parang mali rin ata to pin the blame fully on me. Why? Kasi again uulitin ko po, itong pera na ‘to, this was piling up through the years, hindi naman, this is all accumulated through a long period of time… I think it’s wrong to point the finger at me,” Ledesma said.

(Why is it like that, there’s P89.9 billion? I’m the first one here who’s not proud that PhilHealth had a P600 billion cash reserve. But at the same time, I think it’s also wrong to place the full blame on me. Why? Because, I’ll say it again, this money piled up over the years—it wasn’t all accumulated under me… So, I think it’s wrong to point the finger at me.)

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Later, Ejercito told reporters that he felt offended by the way Ledesma answered his queries. He called it “may pagka presko (a bit arrogant)” and “bordering on bastos (vulgar).”

The deliberations on the proposed funding of PhilHealth as well as the Department of Health was deferred. While no categorical reason was outlined for the deferment, Tolentino said a few of their colleagues still intend to raise questions about the agencies’ budget.