PhilHealth cuts anniversary budget to ‘few hundred thousand pesos only’

MANILA, Philippines— The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has decided to just spend “a few hundred thousand pesos only” for its 30th anniversary next year, down from the proposed P137.7 million.

This was according to PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. as the issue was raised at a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

READ: PhilHealth board ‘cancels’ P37.5M anniversary spending – DOH 

“What was approved by the board and what was decided in PhilHealth already is the budget for the 30th anniversary was brought down to a few hundred thousand pesos only,” Ledesma told the Senate committee on finance.

“To clarify everything, there’s no hundred of millions, there’s no millions…” he stressed.

“We are only planning to spend a few hundred thousand pesos for our 30th anniversary. ‘Yan lang po. Wala pong mga excessive spending po (That’s all. There is no excessive spending),” the PhilHealth chief added.

But Sen. Loren Legarda noted that Ledesma’s statement was not consistent with a document being presented in the hearing, showing the breakdown of the P137.7 million proposal.

READ: PhilHealth: P138M allocation for 2025 anniversary not Christmas party 

“Ano ba ito, gala night and sports fest, P32 million and P13 million, habang ang dami-daming nangangailangan ng health care,” Legarda asked. “Anyway, erased na ito. Who’s the smart person who made this?”

(What is this, a gala night and sports fest costing P32 million and P13 million, while so many are in need of healthcare?)

Ledesma said the proposal was “endorsed by a group inside PhilHealth,” which he later referred to as an “anniversary committee” in their office.

Upon hearing this, Legarda requested the state insurer to give a “memo” to the health committee on why this group had the idea of using P137 million PhilHealth funds for anniversary giveaways and a gala night.

Among the proposed expenses that caught the senator’s eye was the P7.9 million budget for special tokens and umbrellas.

This budget proposal for the state insurer’s anniversary was exposed last week on social media by its critic, Dr. Tony Leachon.

NOTE: The English translations in the article were AI-generated.