Don’t tempt a tax boycott, you PhilHealth thieves
PhilHealth makes us line up for wee benefits. It raised our contributions. Then it illegally gave the government P90 billion of our money.
The P90 billion is for “unprogrammed” appropriations – pork barrels for politicos to plunder.
How to stop it?
Academics reached out to legislators. Only one of 316 congressmen, Stella Quimbo, spoke out. And one of 24 senators, JV Ejercito.
Doctors will petition the Supreme Court. But justices seem selective. Within a fortnight they took up alias Alice Guo’s beg for exemption from congressional probe. Yet they sit on festering issues. Four months so far to compel Congress to ban political dynasties. And 24 months to act on Election 2022 electronic cheating.
The three government branches must countercheck, not collude with, each other. We need recourses.
Or else, we 119 million PhilHealth members might resort to that one weapon against misrule: tax boycott.
It’s tempting – and easy. For starters, we’ll just habituate not issuing or demanding official receipts. Buy stolen or smuggled goods. Claim false exemptions and deductions. Barter goods and services like in the pandemic.
Whee, this is gonna be fun!
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Rep. Joey Salceda justifies government’s “extortion” of our P90 billion: “We can’t have excess money sleeping around our government-owned and -controlled corporations while withholding that same money from public investment.
“Low government spending reduces growth. Reduced growth creates poverty. Poverty creates hunger. Hunger creates disease.”
He’s got it all wrong. Corruption is what reduces growth – not poverty, hunger, disease. Countless studies show such cause and effect.
Health care reformist Dr. Minguita Padilla knows better: “[PhilHealth’s] unused funds don’t mean excess funds. Money for Universal Health Care is still insufficient. Health workers and patients attest to inadequate maintenance meds; essential yet unfunded procedures abound.”
Example: no aid for millions with breast or prostate cancer.
Ex-senator Panfilo Lacson agrees: “Unused appropriations implies inefficiency, incompetence, misplanning. Government fails to address short-, medium-and long-term health needs.”
Data show “how miserable we are in implementing the UHC Act five years after passage in Feb. 2019,” Lacson laments:
• Low to medium spending was expected during trial years 2019-2022.
• In 2023-2026 “we’re supposed to graduate to high-spending” – P570.16 billion in 2023 and P577.02 billion in 2024. Meaning, all 42,000 barangays nationwide covered.
• Instead, we fell short of funding UHC by P344.7 billion in 2023 and P326.1 billion in 2024.
Lacson had scrutinized Malacañang’s yearly budget proposals and exposed Congress’ pork barrels.
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Prof. Men Sta. Ana of think tank Action for Economic Reform provides the big picture: “The original sin was Congress’ insertion of pork barrels in 2024 – bribe money for Charter change, but which got temporarily derailed.
“Those insertions supplanted funds for Malacañang’s original programs. Those programs then became unprogrammed appropriations.
“Now the admin is desperately looking for revenues to fund the unprogrammed items, and is targeting GOCCs. It defined PhilHealth as GOCC to wangle P20 billion last May, P70 billion to follow.
“GOCCs have different mandates and objectives. But government forced Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. to give P30 billion.” If a bank collapses, PDIC will have no cash to cover each depositor up to P500,000.
Prof. JC Punongbayan concludes: “PhilHealth must answer for mismanagement.”
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The vanity Maharlika Fund attempted to extort P125 billion and P50 billion from our GSIS and SSS. We members foiled it.
Maharlika instead took P25 billion from Development Bank of the Philippines and P50 billion from Land Bank. DBP now has no more money to lend.
Land Bank, the depository of all government agencies, shook. Salaries of government personnel are in peril. So are pensions of retired soldiers, policemen, coastguards.
After each of President Marcos Jr.’s foreign jaunts, Maharlika bragged to have attracted big investments.
Really? Show it.
Maharlika hasn’t even begun to operate, The STAR reports. Why? Because president Rafael Consing is asking for P2.5-million monthly pay, same for his crew of unknowns. By law, the Bangko Sentral governor must have the highest salary.
“No country can progress if its politics is more profitable than its industries. Where those in government are richer than entrepreneurs, they manufacture poverty.” – Peter Obi
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