State-owned companies had their budgetary support reduced in October as the government did not provide financial aid to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) during the month.

Data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed that subsidies to government-owned and -controlled corporations fell by 77 percent to P9.19 billion in October compared to P39.92 billion in the same month last year.

This decline was mainly due to the lack of subsidy to PhilHealth, which had received P19.16 billion in budgetary aid in October 2022, the Treasury data showed.

In October, the National Food Authority (NFA) received the largest subsidy of P2.01 billion, followed by the National Housing Authority (NHA) with P1.15 billion.

The Treasury also released P766 million to support the operations of the Light Rail Transit Authority.

Additionally, the government allocated P179 million in subsidy to the Philippine Children and Medical Center, P178 million to the Philippine Heart Center, and P116 million to the National Kidney and Transplant Institute .

Overall, the three government-run hospitals received a total of P473 million in budgetary support from the national government.

The Philippine Coconut Authority also received P92 million, while the Philippine National Railways got P81 million, the National Dairy Administration with P80 million, the Lung Center of the Philippines received P70 million, and the Rice Research Institute received P66 million.

The remaining balance was allocated among 11 other GOCCs.

In the first 10 months of 2023, government subsidies to state-run firms amounted to P146.31 billion, a 10 percent decrease from the P162.17 billion provided in the same period last year.

At end-October, subsidy expenses had already reached 97.47 percent of the national government's allocated budget of P150.01 billion for the year.

In 2022, budgetary support for GOCCs increased by eight percent to P200 billion from P184.77 billion in 2021, primarily aimed at funding the health and agriculture sectors.

Of the subsidies, 61 percent were allocated to other government corporations, representing a 15 percent increase to P122.46 billion from P106.59 billion in 2021.

Support for major non-financial government corporations reached P77.51 billion, a marginal increase of just one percent from the 2021 level of P76.71 billion, comprising 38 percent of the total subsidies.

The remaining one percent, totaling P438 million, was directed to government financial institutions.

This amount reflected a 70 percent decline in subsidies, driven by a nearly 100 percent reduction for the Land Bank of the Philippines, which received just P5 million, the lowest subsidy the previous year.