400 of 600 special health centers of DOH unused
It seems even the Department of Health (DOH) has its own “flood control version” after the agency revealed that most of the health centers built under its health facilities enhancement program (HFEP) remained idle due to lack of personnel.
During the House plenary debates on the DOH’s proposed P253-billion budget for 2026, Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno questioned why only 200 out of the 600 health centers built under the HFEP were functional as of 2025.
He noted that this was despite the allocation of more than P170 billion for its infrastructure and equipment in the past decade.
The figure rises to P400 billion if its funding for commodities and human resources are included.
“Is the reason why the secretary of health described the HFEP as the flood control version of the DOH, was because only a few, according to him, of the health centers are actually functioning?” he asked.
Diokno was referring to Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa’s comment at the committee-level briefings for the DOH budget, where he likened their travails over the HFEP—which aims to improve delivery of basic, essential and specialized health services—to the DPWH’s own troubled flood control program.
Lack of personnel
Budget sponsor and Bataan Rep. Albert Garcia clarified, however, that the HFEP had no “ghost health facilities.”
“They exist, but because of the lack of personnel and health-care professionals who could run them, they are not functioning,” he explained.
He added that the DOH had entered into memorandums of agreement with local governments “in good faith,” expecting them to provide personnel for the facilities they requested.
“Probably some of our LGUs (local government units) lacked the funds to hire doctors and midwives, which is beyond the jurisdiction of the secretary,” Garcia said, pointing out that the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) may need to step in since it oversees LGUs.
“But they are there waiting to be activated and hopefully we can assign personnel to them so they could provide services to our countrymen,” Garcia said.
Denial of service
Diokno challenged the DOH to address the persistent problems in the program implementation as its inefficiencies deny poor Filipino families of essential health services.
“They’re already at a disadvantage because of high prices of food, lack of jobs. If the HFEP is a failure, they would also be at a disadvantage in terms of health,” he lamented.
Launched in 2008, the HFEP is a banner program under the DOH that aims to ensure that the poor and marginalized sectors of society have access to appropriate health facilities.
Specifically, it provides funding assistance for infrastructure and equipment of government health facilities nationwide, including barangay health stations, rural health units, district and provincial hospitals, and specialty centers.
In a 2017 performance audit, the Commission on Audit (COA) had already flagged deficiencies in HFEP implementation, including problems with procurement of equipment not aligned with the actual needs; undistributed equipment at DOH regional offices; and the construction of health stations on ineligible and nonworkable project sites.
Catch-up plan
Diokno noted that it had been seven years since the findings but only now was the DOH enforcing stricter controls.
The Philippine Institute for Development Studies, in a 2025 study, likewise found inequities in the HFEP’s grant distribution, with some LGUs receiving funds despite not being among those most in need.
To address gaps, the DOH said it had launched a “catch-up plan” in the second half of 2025 by revising HFEP guidelines to expand implementation modes, and opening 55 Bagong Urgent Care and Ambulatory Service centers nationwide to temporarily provide primary care while idle facilities await personnel.
Priority project
Data from the DOH’s National Health Facilities Registry show that as of March 2025, the country has 41,963 health facilities.
Of these, 1,338 are hospitals, 630 are infirmaries, 2,674 are rural health units (RHUs), 26,239 are barangay health stations (BHS), and 11,082 are other health-related facilities.
According to the HFEP Management Office, of the total BHS, RHUs and hospitals, the HFEP-funded infrastructure accounted for 8.6 percent, 2.6 percent and 31.5 percent, respectively .
The report of the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department of the House of Representatives released in July 2025 showed that the HFEP has also recently funded the establishment of super health centers (SHCs) to help decongest hospitals and expand access to outpatient services.
SHCs are larger than traditional RHUs and serve as intermediate facilities that offer a wide range of services. The rollout of SHCs has gained momentum, with allocations made for 307 centers in 2022 and 322 in 2023.
The HFEP was assigned as a separate line item in the General Appropriations Act starting in 2007, highlighting its significance as a priority initiative of the DOH in line with broader health sector reforms. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
