A supreme slap in the face

The Supreme Court has delivered a slap in the faces of pork-obsessed lawmakers and economic managers by striking down their two coordinated attempts to raid the coffers of the nation’s health insurer and other state-run corporations.

In last week’s unanimous ruling, the high court voided a special provision in the 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA) that authorized the transfer of “unused” fund balances of all government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs) to the treasury, and a separate Department of Finance (DOF) circular ordering the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to remit P89.9 billion in excess subsidies to the same pot.

Of that amount, P60 billion was remitted in three tranches last year, which the Supreme Court ordered returned to PhilHealth. The remainder had been left untouched owing to a temporary restraining order issued by the high court in November 2024.

Together, the rider and circular created a novel mechanism for diverting lump sum funds—that is, pork by another name. Now, the Supreme Court has shuttered this backdoor, sending a stern signal to Congress and the President’s budget architects that pork will not escape scrutiny simply by changing shape.

A watershed ruling

The high tribunal declared that the GAA rider was “ambiguous” and “not germane” to the budget’s purpose because it introduced an undefined concept (“fund balance”) to justify sweeping extractions from GOCC reserves. It also stressed that Congress cannot alter earmarked health funds, as the Universal Health Care Act dictates exactly where any so-called excess must go: to “increase benefits” or “reduce members’ contributions.”

That is the crux. Congress and the DOF did not merely divert PhilHealth funds but violated a budgetary principle that appropriations must be used for their intended purpose. Bayan Muna chair Neri Colmenares, one of the petitioners, hailed the ruling as a watershed because the court affirmed that the right to health is “self-executing and does not need an implementing law to be a source of right.”

The DOF circular, issued under its former head, now Executive Secretary Ralph Recto, was not just a companion document, because while the rider laid the groundwork, it was the circular that set the stage for the actual transfer

Meanwhile, the DOF insisted it was simply following Congress’ mandate, citing the “commonsense approach” of optimizing idle public funds. But since when did common sense repeal budgetary items or amend laws?

‘Complete proof’

Worse, retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio alleged last week that the PhilHealth funds had been diverted to the very subject of today’s corruption scandal—infrastructure projects. On top of that, he said P107 billion from the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) was remitted to the treasury under the same objective and framework.

The DOF circular allowed the release of these sums through Special Allotment Release Orders or Saros for unprogrammed infrastructure projects. These Saros offer “complete proof” of which districts wound up benefiting from the redistribution of health funds, Carpio said.

If the retired magistrate’s claims are true, then public money meant to subsidize dialysis, chemotherapy, and emergency hospital admissions was channeled into dredging rivers and building dikes, while funds entrusted to PDIC to insure depositors were poured into the same.

The executive said it had complied with the high court’s ruling by ordering the return of P60 billion to PhilHealth as far back as September. Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David then made a sensible proposal to have the government recover the money from officials and contractors tagged in the flood control scandal.

Pork is still pork

But Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, vice chair of the House committee on appropriations, said the only constitutional remedy to return the funds was by restoring them via the 2026 budget.

Buried in all this talk is accountability: Who introduced the rider; who authored the circular; who issued the Saros? The Supreme Court may have righted the wrongs, but it is the responsibility of the Marcos administration to identify and punish all wrongdoers, including those within its own Cabinet.

The implications of the ruling go beyond last year’s spending law. Social Watch Philippines (SWP) noted that in less than a month, President Marcos will be signing the 2026 budget. “The bicam must refrain from reintroducing Special Provision 1(d) or any similar language that would permit fund transfers. Marcos, on the other hand, should veto the provision if an attempt reaches his office,” said SWP co-convenor Ma. Victoria Raquiza.

The ultimate lesson here is that pork is still pork even in fiscal disguise.

Now, the holders of the power of the purse have received a slap that has resounded from the largest public hospitals to the humblest barangay clinics. No ifs or buts, health funds must not be spent for any other purpose than the people’s health.