PhilHealth chief on P89B excess funds: Wrong to pin the blame on me

MANILA, Philippines— The head of the state health insurer thinks it is wrong to blame him for the controversial transfer of its P89.90-billion excess funds to the national treasury.

Emmanuel Ledesma Jr., president and chief executive officer of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), expressed his belief when Sen. JV Ejercito confronted him about the PhilHealth’s fund transfer during Tuesday’s budget deliberations at the Senate.

According to the senator, PhilHealth should not be proud of its savings when many of its members are struggling to pay hospital bills.

READ: JV Ejercito calls for replacement of PhilHealth chief for UHC failures

“Mr. Ledesma, ano po ang tingin n’yo sa PhilHeath? is it a private corporation? Is it a financial corporation? Or are you a government agency? A government service agency?” Ejercito then asked Ledesma.

Ledesma responded to the question by affirming the agency’s mandate to provide health insurance to 116 million Filipinos.

Contrary to insinuations, the PhilHealh chief also clarified that he was not proud that the agency had excess funds.

“Pero at the same time, parang mali rin ata to pin the blame fully on me,” he said.“Why? Kasi again, uulitin ko po di ba itong pera na ito it was piling up through the years…This is all accumulated through a long period of time (But at the same time, it seems wrong to pin the blame fully on me. Why? Because, again, I will repeat, this money has been piling up over the years… This is all accumulated over a long period of time.).”

“So I think it’s wrong to point the finger at me,” he added.

“But Mr. President, just to clarify ha, sabi mo ‘wag ikaw ang ituturo. But sino ang ituturo namin? ’Di ba dapat leadership ito? (But Mr. President, just to clarify, you said not to point the finger at you. But who should we point to? Shouldn’t this be a matter of leadership?)” Ejercito said.

Hearing this, Ledesma clarified his statement, this time saying he was taking full responsibility for the transfer of the agency’s savings.

He reiterated though that the P89.9 billion excess funds were not accumulated in two years that he was at the helm of the state health insurer.

“Kasi po kapapasok lang po natin noong November 2022 (Because we just came in last November 2022). But again I take full responsibility po,” Ledesma stressed.

Ejercito has earlier called for the replacement of Ledesma for supposedly failing to “live up” to the purpose of the Universal Health Care law, which he authored in the Senate.