EDITORIAL — Keeping the health pork barrel

Defying the calls of 72 medical and health care organizations, and despite the corruption scandal surrounding the budget process, lawmakers retained the so-called health pork barrel in the 2026 General Appropriations Act. And President Marcos went along with them in signing the GAA.

The soft pork barrel items are mostly ayuda or aid programs in which lawmakers want to have a say, granting themselves the privilege of claiming personal credit for state-funded dole-outs.

Among the most controversial is the P51.6 billion allocated this year for the health pork barrel, the Medical Assistance for Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients. The 72 medical and health care organizations had specifically called for the scrapping of MAIFIP, under which patients get medical care in hospitals by securing guarantee letters from lawmakers and other politicians. 

Reports yesterday said the Department of Health had issued new guidelines for MAIFIP, but it’s unclear if the rules have eliminated the guarantee letters and politicians’ role.

The DOH designated the Malasakit Program Office as administrator of MAIFIP. The Malasakit is under yet another politicized or soft pork barrel aid program, AICS or the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations, which is supposed to be administered by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

DSWD officials have maintained that politicians are barred from taking part in the distribution of the department’s aid programs. But if there are truly such rules, politicians have ignored them.

In announcing the new rules for MAIFIP, the DOH invoked the principles embodied in the Universal Health Care Act of 2019 or Republic Act 11223. Those 72 medical organizations had in fact cited RA 11223 in opposing MAIFIP, stressing that under the law, the implementing arm of Universal Health Care is the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

The organizations pointed out that PhilHealth should instead get broader support in terms of funding and resources. Medical services under the state health insurer can be accessed by patients without needing to go with a begging bowl to the offices of politicians.

Instead Congress and Malacañang have chopped up public health care resources, ensuring that politicians continue to enjoy epal privileges over billions of pesos in health care services.

The DOH rules on MAIFIP are supposed to address these concerns. But if the government intended to eliminate epal opportunities in public health care, MAIFIP would have been scrapped, along with the other permutations of the health pork barrel.