The Department of Finance (DOF) said that the remittance of P89.9 billion in unused funds from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is projected to boost economic growth by 0.8 percentage points.

Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto said at the Post-State of the Nation Address (SONA) briefing on Tuesday, July 23, that these funds will be channeled to support various initiatives, including foreign-assisted projects.

Recto explained that leveraging unprogrammed funds from government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) will create job opportunities for around 600,000 Filipinos.

“Nakita namin sa aming pagsisiyasat sa DOF na makakatulong ito sa lalong paglago ng ating ekonomiya by more or less .8 percent – ibig sabihin, mas madaling makamit natin iyong six percent growth rate o ‘di kaya 6.5 percent growth rate sa taong ito,” Recto said

[We saw in our review at the DOF that this will help further grow our economy by more or less 0.8 percent – meaning, we can more easily achieve the six percent growth rate or even the 6.5 percent growth rate this year]

“At dagdag pa diyan, makakalikha nang mahigit anim na daang libong trabaho,” he added.

[And on top of that, it will create more than 600,000 jobs]

He noted that the DOF consulted with the Governance Commission for GOCCs, the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel, and the Commission on Audit before remitting the unused funds.

“Sa aming pagsisisyasat at ng Kongreso, natutulog lang yung pera sa PhilHealth. Hindi nagagamit,” he said.

[In our review and that of Congress, the money is just sleeping at PhilHealth. It's not being used]

Recto further justified the utilization of unused funds, noting that Filipinos also contributed more than P5 billion every year for the incurred interest rate from such funds.

He also said that PhilHealth still has P500 billion in unused funds in its chest box from government subsidies.

The government is taking around P200 billion from GOCCs, with more than P100 billion coming from the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation in tranches until the end of the year.

So far, about P20 billion has been remitted by the government from PhilHealth, which was used to finance the recently released health emergency allowance (HEA) for healthcare workers.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman earlier approved a special allotment release order amounting to P27.453 billion to settle the remaining unpaid HEA, upon the directive of President Marcos.

6% growth in Q2

The finance chief also said he is hopeful that the economic growth for the second quarter reach six percent.

"[Drivers would be] Consumption because that's the biggest part, household consumption and that's supported by bank lending, credit card despite of high interest rates and of course government consumption," he said.