A PARTY-LIST lawmaker yesterday sought an inquiry by the House of Representatives into the tripling of the salaries of officials of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) while the country grappled with the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rep. Ray Reyes (PL, Anakalusugan) has filed House Resolution No. 1261 urging the House Committee on Health to investigate, in aid of legislation, the pay hike that was approved by the Governance Commission for Government-owned and Controlled Corporations (GCG) during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
The GCG approval of the request to adjust the salaries of PhilHealth officials was revealed during Wednesday’s budget hearing of the House Committee on Appropriations on the proposed 2024 budget of the Department of Health (DOH).
Reyes said the matter should be looked into because the executive department prioritized the increase of their own salaries while the country continued to cope from the pandemic.
“It is ridiculous and reeks with callous lack of empathy that PhilHealth thought it necessary to apply for a certification to increase their salaries and allowances threefold in the middle of a pandemic,” Reye said in the resolution. “They cannot even provide a zero-balance billing for its members despite millions collected in additional increases in premium contributions, billions of proceeds from their investments, and the multiple sources of funding provided for by several statutes enacted for the purpose.”
PhilHealth spokesperson Israel Francis Pargas has said during the DOH budget hearing that the salaries were increased following Duterte’s issuance of Executive Order No. 150 in October 2021.
The House panel is expected to invite former officials of the Duterte administration once a hearing is called.
The 2021 EO approved the compensation and position classification system framework developed by the GCG.
While the government was cash-strapped because of the pandemic, the PhilHealth officials sought the salary increase from the GCG, which approved the certification process.
A Commission on Audit (COA) report released last month showed PhilHealth’s key management personnel receiving P71.45 million in 2022, which is almost triple compared to just P26.2 million in 2021.
“While PhilHealth struggles to satisfactorily complete its mandate of being the nation’s health insurance provider, the COA reported a 175 percent increase in the pay of PhilHealth officials from 2021-2022 with some officials earning up to over half a million in a month in the middle of a raging pandemic,” Reyes said.
The lawmaker noted that the state of public health emergency was only lifted in July of 2023, “putting the propriety of PhilHealth’s request for a certification for an increase in their pay right in the middle of a pandemic in question.”
