P74-B PhilHealth cut triggers Senate action on budget transparency | Pinakabagong Balita sa Pilipinas

P74-B PhilHealth cut triggers Senate action on budget transparency — MANILA, Philippines—In the wake of the controversial scrapping of the P74-billion subsidy for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) in th...

MANILA, Philippines—In the wake of the controversial scrapping of the P74-billion subsidy for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) in the 2025 national budget, Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson secured key commitments from the Senate leadership to open up the budget process and finally identify the authors behind last-minute insertions and realignments.

During a Senate session on August 13, Lacson and Senate finance committee chairman Sherwin Gatchalian reached a rare agreement: amendments to the national budget bill—including those that remove or reallocate billions in public funds—must now come with names, justifications, and a traceable record.

WATCH: LIVE: Senate holds plenary session | August 13

“[W]hen any of our colleagues will seek clarification on particular insertions or realignments or amendments, then the chairman of the Finance Committee will divulge the identity or identities of the proponents of the amendments on the floor, to make it of record,” Lacson said in a manifestation on the Senate floor.

Gatchalian agreed, assuring senators and the public that the committee would also upload budget movements—between the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), the committee report, and the version approved on second reading—on official websites to enhance accountability.

“The chairman of the Committee on Finance can elaborate and also reveal the history of those changes… because as your chairman, I have to justify those changes in the committee report,” Gatchalian said. “The justification to the addition is as important [as] the justification to the deduction.”

The Senate move comes amid mounting public scrutiny over how the P74 billion allocated for PhilHealth under the Sin Tax Law vanished during the bicameral conference committee (bicam) deliberations—without explanation and records.

READ:Puno, Lacson press for answers on P74-B PhilHealth cut

Lacson, who has long flagged opaque budget insertions, pressed hard during the August 12 session for full disclosure of individual amendments.

“We have to be able to identify who the proponents of the amendments [are]. Can we do that? We are for full transparency,” he told Gatchalian, citing past cases of questionable flood control and infrastructure allocations parked under party-list names or regions.

Gatchalian initially said full tracking might be complicated, especially as some amendments “evolve” over time or undergo several revisions. But Lacson pushed back.

“If we want to be transparent, let’s be fully transparent,” Lacson said. “Otherwise, I don’t want to say we’re kidding ourselves, but we won’t really be fully transparent.”

He emphasized the need to publish not just final budget versions, but also all individual and written amendments—pointing out that bicam meetings remain closed-door, unrecorded, and undocumented.

“I filed [Senate Bill No. 32] precisely to address this,” he said, referring to his long-pending proposal that would institutionalize civil society participation in the budget process and mandate recordings of bicam proceedings.

In response, Gatchalian committed to the following:

“To hasten the budget deliberations as well as the budget process, I appeal to our colleagues who will later on give their amendments to also assist the committee to look for sources,” he said. “Because when you add budget to certain agencies, you also deduct budget from others.”

Lacson agreed to withdraw his planned amendments to the resolution, satisfied with the commitments. “I agreed to the proposal… because the outcome is the same. It is for transparency,” he said.

While the Senate moved toward transparency, questions continue to swirl over the PhilHealth subsidy’s abrupt deletion during the bicam process.

Deputy Speaker Reynaldo Puno, in a press conference on August 12, reiterated that the House version had kept PhilHealth’s budget intact, along with that of the Department of Education (DepEd). It was only after the bicam discussions, he said, that the trust fund was slashed.

READ:PhilHealth has zero subsidy for 2025 due to P600B reserve funds

“Ngayon gusto namin malaman: Sino talaga ang nagtanggal? Paano natanggal ang PhilHealth budget? Kasi alam ko hindi dito sa House of Representatives yan dahil ang pinadala namin sa kanila buo pa yan,” Puno said.

(We want to know who removed it. How was the PhilHealth budget deleted? Because I know it didn’t happen in the House—we sent it intact.)

He added: “Ang pagdagdag ng DPWH budget ay nanggaling sa pagbawas ng DepEd at pagtanggal ng [PhilHealth] trust fund. Napunta sa DPWH budget sa madaling sabi may nakinabang doon.”

(The DPWH budget increase came from the DepEd cut and the removal of the trust fund. In short, someone benefitted.)

READ:Puno: Solons blamed, but P74-B PhilHealth subsidy changed outside House

Senate President Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero and former Finance Committee Chairperson Grace Poe, who defended the bicameral conference committee’s removal of the PhilHealth subsidy, cited PhilHealth’s alleged inefficiency and P600 billion in reserve funds. However, neither elaborated on how the deletion occurred or who initiated it.

READ:PhilHealth has zero subsidy for 2025 due to P600B reserve funds

Escudero called PhilHealth a “failure” and said, “Why should we add to it?”

However, health advocates and opposition senators—especially Senator Risa Hontiveros—have challenged this rationale, warning that eliminating the subsidy could violate the Universal Health Care Law and deprive indigent Filipinos of coverage.

READ:PhilHealth’s P74-B subsidy scrapped due to its ‘failure’ – Escudero

Puno, for his part, believes the public deserves to know how and why these decisions were made.

“Sino yung bumawas sa DepEd budget? Sino ang nagtanggal ng PhilHealth? Sino ang nagdagdag sa DPWH? At sino ang nakinabang?” he asked.

(Who cut the DepEd budget? Who removed PhilHealth? Who increased the DPWH budget? And who benefited?)

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 4, unanimously adopted by the Senate, is seen as a first step toward greater budget transparency. But Lacson cautioned that unless the identities of amendment proponents are disclosed, “it will defeat the purpose.”

He warned that without transparency, legislators will continue to get away with questionable insertions that benefit select contractors or allies.

“We won’t be able to identify who made what change,” Lacson said. “And without that, it’s back to business as usual.”

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From zero subsidy in 2025, PhilHealth to get P53.3 billion in 2026

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