MANILA, Philippines — The government must not defer the implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law, according to Malacañang.
Otherwise, it will constitute a violation of the Constitution, Presidential Spokesperson Secretary Harry Roque said.
Roque specifically addressed the matter to the management of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) after issues of anomalies surfaced against the agency.
He said should the agency fails to adhere to its mandate, it would compel President Rodrigo Duterte to for a new leader who will be more capable to implement the law.
“Ang akin pong panawagan sa mga namumuno sa Philhealth. Kung hindi ninyo po mapapatupad ang isang batas na certified as urgent ni President mismo, dahil na ang nais niya magkaroon ng libreng gamot ang lahat ng Pilipino, gaya ng ginawa niya sa Davao, siguro po hahanap na lang ng iba na magpapatupad niyan,” Roque said.
[I call on the leadership of PhilHealth. If you will not implement the Law that the President himself certified as urgent as he intends to provide free medicine to all Filipinos similar to what he did in Davao, perhaps he would opt to find another person who will do get the job done.]
Roque, however, stressed that his statement did not intend to threaten PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales.
For his part, Morales assured that the agency has enough funds to support the claims of all members.
“We started the year with about P130-B reserved (fund). So hindi totoong walang pera ang [It’s not true that PhilHealth is out of fund] but we were asking for P153-B for 2020,” Morales explained.
“Ang natanggap namin is P71-B. So may shortfall iyon pero kaya pa ng reserves namin iyon [We received P71-B, so yes, we have shortfall but our reserves can still back us up]. We’re okay for this year up to about early next year. We’re fine,” he assured.
PhilHealth is constantly coordinating with the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in case an adjustment is needed in the agency’s budget for next year. MNP (with reports from Rosalie Coz)
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