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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider Banking & Finance devider PhilHealth still awaits ₱241 billion in government arrears—law firm

PhilHealth still awaits ₱241 billion in government arrears—law firm

Published Aug 25, 2026 05:45 pm  |  Updated Aug 25, 2026 03:56 pm

At A Glance

  • State-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is still waiting to receive more than ₱240 billion in arrears from the national government (NG) that have accumulated over a multi-year period spanning from before the pandemic to 2025.
File photos
File photos

State-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is still waiting to receive more than ₱240 billion in arrears from the national government (NG) that have accumulated over a multiyear period spanning from before the Covid-19 pandemic to 2025.

Makati City-based legal practice Geronimo Law wrote in an Aug. 24 report that the government’s financial liabilities to PhilHealth, totaling ₱241.1 billion, have piled up across different administrations.

According to the law firm, unreleased sin tax earmarks from fiscal years (FYs) 2023 to 2025 have swollen to ₱113.4 billion. Of this amount, ₱56.4 billion was already appropriated under the 2023 and 2024 national budgets but remained unreleased by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) as of September 2024.

Geronimo Law said the remaining amount was “not appropriated,” noting that the DBM and Congress have the power to determine whether these funds are programmed for release.

Unremitted revenue shares from state-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) have also mounted to ₱107 billion. These cover the years 2019 through 2025.

Based on the firm’s estimates, the earmark amounts to around ₱22 billion to ₱23 billion annually, as the state’s share of Pagcor’s income stood at ₱46.3 billion in 2024 and ₱45.2 billion in 2025.

For its part, Pagcor clarified that its monthly remittance to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) already contains earmarked funding for universal health care (UHC). However, these funds are stuck in the BTr’s general fund, while the DBM has likewise not included the funds to be appropriated by Congress.

PhilHealth was also forced to fully write off ₱20.7 billion in legacy receivables and subsidies dating from 2016 and prior.

These repeated lapses stand in stark contrast with the reality that working Filipinos have had their mandatory premium contributions automatically deducted at source, the firm said.

Geronimo Law deemed it unfair that private-sector workers carry the financial weight of higher premium rates while the government’s counterpart obligations have been left to pile up unsettled.

Under the UHC Act, premium rates rose to five percent in 2024 and are automatically deducted from the wages of Filipinos.

Citing the recent changes in the national health insurer, Geronimo Law is putting pressure on PhilHealth acting president and chief executive officer (CEO) Beverly Ho to take action and religiously collect these massive, legally mandated backlogs directly from the state’s purse.

“We challenge the new PhilHealth leadership to collect from the single largest delinquent payer: the national government,” Geronimo Law said.

Previous deliberations for the 2026 budget corrected the supposed gap of ₱16.5 billion. Geronimo Law noted that this was added back to the ₱69.8-billion mandated budget for this year by invoking the sin tax laws.

Related Tags

PhilHealth Universal Health Care Geronimo Law
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