Anti-‘epal’ budget provision ignored
Thanks to the complaints of the Cayetano siblings in the Senate, we now know that some politicians have managed to circumvent the anti-“epal” provision in the 2026 national budget banning their intervention in the distribution of the government’s cash aid and other financial assistance to poor families.
During a Senate session on Aug. 11, Sen. Pia Cayetano said authorities stopped accepting recommendations from minority senators for patients to avail themselves of the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (Maifip).
“I’m just saying, if some of our colleagues are allowed to help our fellow Filipinos, why can’t some of us make recommendations? Do we no longer know how to make recommendations?” Cayetano said, adding that the same was true for fellow minority Senators Imee Marcos and Bong Go.
“For over a decade, so many people have come to me asking for help. And just in the last few months, this has been weaponized against us,” Cayetano said.
Two months earlier, her brother, Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, aired the same complaint following his short-lived and chaotic Senate presidency. In a fellowship lunch on June 19, the senator said he was stripped of his capacity to refer patients to hospitals and slammed then Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa for allegedly politicizing the Maifip funds.
Political patronage
He warned that if Herbosa didn’t “fix this” problem that week, he would send busloads of patients’ families to the Department of Health (DOH) “so you can sign the assistance the patients needed.” It was not known if Herbosa gave in, and it was Pia’s turn to complain about the same issue earlier this month.
What’s puzzling here is not that the Cayetanos were denied the right to make “recommendations” for the Maifip funds. What’s baffling is the revelation that senators were still getting involved in that program, which was already expressly prohibited when the 2026 national budget was passed in January.
Because of public criticisms that politicians were using the government’s various “ayuda” and financial assistance programs as a form of political patronage, Republic Act No. 12314 or the 2026 General Appropriations Act included provisions prohibiting political involvement by any elected official, candidate, political party, or their representatives in the distribution of Maifip and other financial assistance funds. “All cash assistance and other financial aid distributions shall be conducted exclusively by authorized government officers and personnel, or accredited partners,” Sec. 19 of the budget law said. Sec. 20 also banned the display of public officials’ names and images on government projects.
Guarantee letters
These provisions were included to end the practice of politicians issuing guarantee letters, which patients present to hospitals to cover their medical expenses. Health and civil society groups criticized this practice as perpetuating patronage politics and being demeaning to the poor who have to beg for such endorsements.
President Marcos even cited the anti-epal provision when he signed the budget on Jan. 5, saying politicians are “barred from the distribution of any financial aid, and we shall ensure that the support reaches the intended beneficiaries without patronage.”
Herbosa followed up by announcing that guarantee letters from politicians were no longer necessary to avail of free hospitalization, as these will be covered by the government’s zero balance billing program and the Maifip funds both under the DOH. “The law actually prohibits a guarantee letter. The law is very clear and we will follow the law,” Herbosa said.
Then why are senators still allowed to make “recommendations” that have the same effect as guarantee letters? What is the use of the much-publicized anti-epal provision if those who enacted the law are the ones violating it?
DOH guidelines
Acting Health Secretary Edwin Mercado should look into this anomaly, which is a mockery of the budget law and the subsequent DOH guidelines issued last Feb. 25 to implement the anti-epal provision. This is especially important as the Department of Budget and Management released P27.4 billion to the DOH last Friday for the Maifip, which is part of the total P51.6 billion Maifip budget for this year.
“The P27.4 billion we are releasing is meant to translate into real help at the hospital level—medicines that can be bought, procedures that can be performed, and medical bills that families do not have to shoulder on their own,” Budget Secretary Kim Robert de Leon said.
The DOH should further make the process less cumbersome for the intended beneficiaries, and ensure that the assistance reaches those in the provinces who have long been neglected in the provision of social services.
In the meantime, politicians should have some shame and lay off the Maifip and other cash assistance programs. They should stop treating public funds as their personal resources to aid their continued stay in office.
