PhilHealth fund return lifts GOCC subsidies in April

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June 15, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The government’s restoration of P60 billion in “excess funds” to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) sent subsidies to state-run firms surging more than fourfold in April, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said.

Treasury data showed budgetary support to government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) ballooned by 355.7 percent to P66.28 billion in April from P14.54 billion in the same month a year ago.

The government grants subsidies to GOCCs to cover operational expenses not supported by their own revenues.

The P60-billion amount returned to the state insurer “refers to the returned fund balance from unutilized subsidy remitted to BTr in 2024 following the Supreme Court (SC) ruling,” the Treasury said.

PhilHealth’s excess funds were transferred to the National Treasury in three tranches in 2024, but were ordered returned by President Marcos in September last year.

This was made possible amid the availability of savings from other agencies, particularly the Department of Public Works and Highways, after the termination of flood control projects, ahead of the SC ruling.

In addition, the Office of the Ombudsman last week dismissed plunder, graft and malversation complaints against Executive Secretary and former finance secretary Ralph Recto and several others in connection with the transfer of reserve funds of the PhilHealth to the National Treasury.

Data from the BTr showed that this is the first time PhilHealth received its first subsidy of 2026 in April. The health insurer only got a one-time P27 million subsidy in August for the whole year of 2025.

In April, the budgetary support for other government corporations surged by more than six times to P62.02 billion from P9.41 billion, or 93.6 percent of the total.

Subsidies for the budgetary support for major non-financial government corporations went down by 24.5 percent to P3.64 billion.

After PhilHealth, the National Food Authority received the second biggest subsidy at P2.47 billion, followed by the National Irrigation Administration at P917 million and the Small Business Corp. at P625 million.

Other top subsidy beneficiaries include the Philippine Rubber Research Institute with P362 million, the Philippine Coconut Authority with P231 million, the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. with P213 million and the Philippine Heart Center with P202 million.

On the other hand, Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority received the smallest support with P4 million.

For the January to April period, subsidies also more than doubled to P93.13 billion from P37.13 billion in the same period in 2025, with PhilHealth still accounting for the largest share.