The Supreme Court’s decision ordering the government to return the P60-billion to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) makes it clear that the transfer of the reserve funds of the state health insurer to the National Treasury was unconstitutional. 

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, made the remark following the SC ruling asking the government to return the funds which formed part of the P89.9-billion unused funds of PhilHealth back to the agency. 

“Malinaw ang desisyon ng Korte Suprema: Labag sa Konstitusyon ang ginawang paglipat ng reserve funds ng PhilHealth (The Supreme Court's decision is clear: The transfer of PhilHealth's reserve funds was unconstitutional),” Hontiveros said in a statement.

“Nagpapasalamat ako sa Korte Suprema sa pagtutuwid sa malaking pagkakamali ng gobyerno dito. Dahil sa desisyong ito, masisigurado ng ating mga institusyon na mapagsisilbihan natin ang lahat ng Pilipino, ayon na rin sa mithiin ng universal health care (I thank the Supreme Court for correcting the government's grave error here. With this decision, our institutions can be assured that we will serve all Filipinos, in line with the goal of universal health care),” she said.

Hontiveros noted that even before the Court's decision, Congress had already allocated P60-billion for PhilHealth. 

“But it must be clear that this is not an augmentation, this is funds returned to PhilHealth. This is not additional funds,” she stressed.

“As we enact the 2026 budget, hindi pwedeng mawala ang binalik na P60 billion sa PhilHealth, at patuloy nating singilin ang P53 billion pa na utang ng gobyerno na hindi nito binigay bilang subsidyo sa taong 2025 (we cannot lose the P60 billion returned to PhilHealth, and we must continue to collect the P53 billion that the government still owes that it did not provide as subsidies in 2025),” she further said.

As public servants, Hontiveros said it is the government’s obligation to ensure that every peso from the people's taxes is used to its full potential. 

“Patuloy nating protektahan ang kaban ng bayan tungo sa abot-kaya at dekalidad na serbisyong pangkalusugan para sa lahat (Let us continue to protect the public treasury towards affordable and quality health services for all),” she said.