PhilHealth’s ₱60-Billion Vanishing Act: Now You’re Sick, Now You’re Flooded

You Paid Your Premiums for Dialysis; They Delivered Dikes That Dissolve in July

By Louis ‘Barok‘ C. Biraogo — December 3, 2025

MGA ka-kweba, i-sipsipin ‘to: a dialysis patient gasping for one more PhilHealth-covered session while, somewhere in Bulacan, a congressman’s favorite contractor is pouring substandard concrete into a “flood-control project” that will vanish with the first typhoon.
That concrete was paid for with the very pesos meant to keep that patient alive.
Welcome to the Philippines, 2025: where the unofficial national motto is now “Para sa Kickback, Kongreso, at Konkreto.”

Let me walk you through the heist—step by filthy step.

**“Trust-fund today, dust-fund tomorrow—guaranteed soluble in first rainfall!”**

The Four-Step Siphon

The Tap
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) declares ₱60 billion in reserves as “excess” or “idle.” Idle—while cancer patients queue and hospitals chase unpaid claims.
The Pump
Those ₱60 billion are transferred to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr). The Department of Finance (DOF) then waves its magic wand—DOF Circular No. 003-2024—turning health money into a “certification of available fiscal space.”
The Hose
Armed with that certification, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) opens the valve on “Unprogrammed Appropriations” (UA)—the budget’s off-the-books slush fund that escapes line-by-line congressional scrutiny.
The Flood
Out pours ₱141 billion for “flood control” in just two years: ₱34 billion in 2023 and ₱107 billion in 2024.
Coincidence? Only if you also believe Janet Lim-Napoles joined a convent.

The Legal Abomination

Republic Act No. 11223, the Universal Health Care Act, explicitly declares PhilHealth reserves a trust fund—money held in sacred trust for health services alone. The Supreme Court has ruled again and again (coco levy, road users’ tax, Mamanwa trust fund cases) that trust funds cannot be diverted. Yet when the diversion feeds flood-control kickbacks, suddenly the law becomes “guidance.”

This is PDAF 2.0 with better branding. The Supreme Court already killed the Pork Barrel system in the landmark case Belgica v. Ochoa (G.R. No. 208566, 19 Nov 2013) precisely because lump-sum, post-enactment, executive-controlled discretionary funds are a constitutional abomination. They just renamed it “Unprogrammed Appropriations” and dared us to notice.

The Criminal Menu (Pick Your Charge)

Article 217, Revised Penal Code – Malversation of public funds (reclusion perpetua if >₱22 million)
Republic Act No. 3019, Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, §3(e) – Causing undue injury through manifest partiality
Republic Act No. 7080, the Plunder Law – when the total loot exceeds ₱50 million

Plenty of room left in the Bilibid presidential suite.

The Second Robbery: “We’ll Return It… in 2026”

After the public finally roared, Malacañang announced that the ₱60 billion will be returned to PhilHealth—through the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
Translation: the thieves don’t pay it back. The contractors who pocketed the kickbacks don’t pay it back. You—the taxpayer—pay it back. Again.
That is the fiscal equivalent of making a mugging victim buy the robber a new getaway car.

What Must Happen Now (No More Press-Release Justice)

Immediate, special forensic audit by the Commission on Audit (COA) tracing every peso from PhilHealth → BTr → DBM → contractor → politician. Publish the money trail in full.
Criminal cases filed by the Office of the Ombudsman—not against clerks, but against the secretaries, undersecretaries, and budget architects who designed this scheme.
Automatic asset forfeiture under RA 3019 and RA 1379. Every hacienda, helicopter, and Hermès bag purchased after 2022 gets seized and sold—the proceeds go straight back to PhilHealth.
Legislative abolition (or radical caging) of Unprogrammed Appropriations. If Congress wants flood control, put it in the programmed budget where citizens can see it.
Ironclad amendment: any future raid on Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporation (GOCC) trust funds is automatic plunder—no “fiscal space” excuses.

This is not just about ₱60 billion.
This is about whether a Filipino with stage-4 cancer can still believe the government cares if she lives or dies.

They gambled the people’s health on muddy canals and concrete commissions.
They lost.
Now they must pay.

Share this. Tag your congressman. Ask him why your mother’s dialysis money built his campaign war chest.

Because if we let this pass, the next time you get sick, there won’t be a PhilHealth left to rob.

From the cave, still coughing from the stench, still swinging,

–Barok