Transfer P52-B ‘political ayuda’ to PhilHealth, doctors propose

Lawmakers’ “guarantee letters” for health and social welfare “ayuda” are illegal.

They are pork barrels which the Supreme Court outlawed in 2014. They abet bribery, malversation and nepotism.

Senators and congressmen issue pro-forma letters to the Departments of Health and of Social Welfare and Development guaranteeing that beneficiaries are indigents in need of help.

But those are usually political wards in their payroll or voters they are wooing.

Guarantee letters specify amounts of health or social welfare services that lawmakers want. Those range from P50,000 to P100,000 per “beneficiary.” They direct DOH and DSWD to charge the amounts to their ayuda allocations parked in the departments.

Pork barrels are a no-no, DOH USec. Albert Domingo said Wednesday. They supposedly ignore the amounts stated. Just the same, they help the individuals if willing to stay in charity wards of government hospitals, he told broadcasters Ted Failon and Czarina Guevarra (True FM 105.9).

Domingo said they doubt the indigency of recipients. More so if these are already billeted in solo rooms, instead of shared charity wards.

The SC defined pork barrels as lump sums for unspecified projects proposed by lawmakers after the approval of annual national budgets. Legislators unconstitutionally perform the work of executive agencies.

But the Senate-House of Reps bicameral conference committee approved this week two illegal ayudas in the 2026 national budget:

• P51.6-billion Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients, under DOH, and

• P63.9-billion Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations, under DSWD.

• Total: P115.5 billion

Both ayudas went through “moro-moro.”

Malacañang complicitly proposed P24.23 billion for MAIFIP. The House more than doubled it in November to P49 billion. The Senate slashed it to P29 billion.

This week the bicam approved an even higher P51.6 billion, which both chambers will ratify before year-end.

Malacañang also proposed P26.9 billion for AICS. Social Welfare Sec. Rex Gatchalian asked congressmen for additional P43 billion, for a total of P69.9 billion. The House granted only P59 billion, while the Senate approved P34 billion.

The bicam approved P63.9 billion.

The 90,000-strong Philippine Medical Association asked Congress to rechannel MAIFIP and AICS to the state insurance PhilHealth. “We believe it is better to increase the budget of PhilHealth which directly pays for patients’ hospital bills, rather than having to beg from politicians, which is a high form of patronage politics,” PMA president Hector Santos said Tuesday.

Nearly all 115 million Filipinos are PhilHealth members and dependents either as direct contributors or subsidized through sin taxes.

“We all want a health system that protects people – not one that forces them to beg for help,” health care reformist Dr. Tony Leachon said. “MAIFIP doesn’t strengthen universal health care. It sidesteps it.”

He added: “Under the Universal Health Care Law, every Filipino should have automatic, rules-based access to care through PhilHealth. No gatekeepers. No endorsements. No politics.

“MAIFIP creates a parallel, discretionary system where access depends on letters, offices and influence. That’s not universal care – that’s selective care.”

Government subsidy for PhilHealth in 2026 is only P53 billion – a far cry from the minimum yearly requirement of P147 billion.

In 2025 it was zero. In 2024 it was P67 billion.

Doctors Antonio Dans and Juan Antonio Perez said government must give PhilHealth’s 24.5 million indigent members P6,000 each a year in benefits. That translates to P147 billion.

*      *      *

“Topak siya (She’s cuckoo).” With that consensus, AFP generals scoffed at agitations by three retired counterparts to depose President Bongbong Marcos.

BBM isn’t perfect. But installing VP Sara Duterte is jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Who’d want a commander-in-chief often melting down in public?

The first and sixth impeachment articles against VP Sara on Feb. 5, 2025 detail her scenes. Those will likely be revived on Feb. 6, 2026 after the one-year bar on multiple impeachments:

• She livestreamed her threat on Nov. 23, 2024 to assassinate BBM, First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos and then-speaker Martin Romualdez. “No joke, no joke,” she glared into the camera.

• She agitated to oust BBM, showed on video how she’d slit his throat, opined to exhume Marcos Sr.’s remains at Libingan ng mga Bayani and throw them into the sea, shielded fugitive for child sex cult leader Apollo Quiboloy, junketed to a Taylor Swift concert in Europe while typhoon was ravaging the Philippines;

• She sowed confusion and doubt about the Philippine position over escalating tensions with China, kept mum about Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea, urged subordinates and state auditors to defy Congress subpoenas, snubbed House inquiries, imputed bribery of Supreme Court justices and obstructed the police transfer to the Women’s Correctional of her chief of staff Zuleika Lopez.

*      *      *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8 to 10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM).

Follow me on Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/Jarius-Bondoc