When public health is a death sentence

For a country where many of its poorest die without being attended to by medical professionals in their lifetime, there is the expectation that the government, with billions of taxpayer money at its disposal, would work harder and with more urgency to bridge the health gap.

But the 2025 audit report on the Department of Health (DOH) by the Commission on Audit (COA) found that over P17.27 billion worth of infrastructure projects were either “delayed,” “idle or unutilized,” “underutilized,” “not used for its intended purpose,” “not yet started,” or “unimplemented,” or had “poor structural maintenance.”

The report reviewed the implementation of the Health Facilities Enhancement Program, which aims to deliver quality service by providing the capital outlay to build crucial infrastructure, such as barangay health stations and rural health units, and procure medical equipment. This undertaking envisioned more accessible health care, especially to those in remote areas.

This is not the first time that the DOH has been called out for unfinished facilities. In 2025, senators found during a budget hearing that 1,823 health centers, estimated to cost the government P32.4 billion, were not completed.

Lack of coordination

In its recent report, the COA also flagged P242.358 million worth of idle medical equipment in 2025 for the simple reason that the recipient government hospitals and health centers were not operationally ready yet.

The commission has noted several reasons for the delays, such as DOH personnel occupying construction areas, delays in obtaining necessary permits, changes in architectural and engineering plans, pending litigation, and lack of coordination among stakeholders.

State auditors also found that while some facilities may already exist, they were “underutilized” because of a lack of manpower and equipment, or were poorly maintained and needed repairs. They further noted that some of these structures had poor workmanship and had been broken into and burglarized. These projects amounted to P1.11 billion in wasted resources that should have gone into making health care a benefit for everyone and not a privilege for the few who can afford it.

These findings are not new.

Ghost projects

Last year, at around the same time that the scale of the flood control corruption scandal was being exposed and “ghost” projects were being uncovered, the infamous “manananggal” super health center (SHC) in Barangay Concepcion Dos in Marikina also came to light. It was among the 297 unfinished SHCs that began construction in 2021, but only a few—according to then Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa—were actually completed and operational.

The rest were either ghost projects or, just like the Marikina SHC, abandoned after the original plan was modified and failed to receive budget support. The structure, whose construction started in December 2023, was marked as “completed” in April 2024 even though only the first phase consisting of its foundation was finished. Nothing has been heard about it afterward, with the “Inside Marikina” page on Facebook reporting that, as of March this year, there has been “no movement [in the] construction” of the facility since November 2025.

These nonfunctional facilities not only waste money but also rob Filipinos of basic health care services. It also does not fit into the Marcos administration’s “Sa Bagong Pilipinas, bawat buhay ay mahalaga” principle that is supposed to emphasize universal health care, social protection, and equitable medical services for all.

Failure of government

A 2021 discussion paper by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies already provided adequate warning that the Philippines was behind its counterparts in the Southeast Asian region in health financing and service delivery. It pointed out that the country’s health facilities were not sufficient: hospital beds were limited, there was a shortage of health care workers, and timely access to primary health care facilities remained out of reach. In 2020, according to the paper, only 50 percent of Filipinos were able to access primary health care within 30 minutes, the standard time frame set by the government.

In 2016, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that 59.2 percent, or 342,705 out of the 582,183 registered deaths in the country, were unattended by a physician, public health officer, hospital authority, or other medical personnel.

The situation and statistics may have hardly improved today, with all these issues facing government health infrastructure and service.

After the flood control issue, Filipinos by now should be wired to view each unfinished or abandoned public health infrastructure as not only a failure of government but a death sentence. Where diseases could have been prevented, and lives could have been saved with accessible and functioning public health care, there is instead only a faster path to the grave.