OPINION
Ed Javier
In Government, Kickbacks Travel Faster Than Ambulances
We have just been to a hospital for a routine check-up. While waiting for our turn, we saw patients lining up, old and young alike, emergency and regular cases.
A frail lola clutched her prescription, quietly asking the nurse if there was a cheaper alternative.
A young father in a faded shirt counted coins to see if he had enough for his child’s antibiotics.
We overheard them talking about the high cost of healthcare and medicines.
Some were worried about the price of dialysis, others about the monthly expense for maintenance medicines.
It was a painful reminder that when it comes to healthcare, the poor are always at the losing end.
Former Senator Ping Lacson revealed that from 2011 to 2025, almost ₱2 trillion was spent on flood control projects.
If the suspicion that 50% of those funds went to corruption is correct, then ₱1 trillion was lost.
That amount could have built 1,000 fully equipped district hospitals. Or 100,000 rural health centers. Or purchased 500,000 dialysis machines.
It could have given 22,000,000 Filipinos with hypertension free medicines for 15 years. Or 7,700,000 diabetics free insulin and oral meds for 20 years. Millions more with high cholesterol the drugs they need to avoid heart attacks and strokes.
Flood control is just one example.
Remember the ₱1.2 billion Cabagan, Isabela bridge that collapsed months after completion.
Or the two controversial Iloilo flyovers, costing ₱1.4 billion, that the DPWH ordered stopped and repaired.
Hundreds of billions more vanish in overpriced DepEd laptops, ghost irrigation canals, expired COVID-19 vaccines, “beautification” projects, ghost fertilizers, and bloated medicine prices.
Experts have also pointed out overpriced items like yellow road barriers at ₱127,320 per meter that should cost only ₱20,000, and “cat’s eyes” at ₱11,000 each when the market price is just ₱1,000.
Funds wasted on these projects could have transformed our healthcare system.
Every peso lost is one less for dialysis machines, rural health centers, and maintenance drugs for the poor.
Imagine a Philippines where every province has a well-equipped hospital. Every barangay a health center.
Every patient with chronic illness receiving free maintenance medicine.
A dialysis patient walking home smiling because they know next week’s session is already covered.
Instead, we have projects that crumble under the first strong rain. Or flyovers with humps that make driving a roller coaster.
Public health cannot wait. Infrastructure can. A delayed road inconveniences. Delayed treatment kills.
Yet last year, the Department of Finance (DOF) transferred part of PhilHealth’s excess funds to the national treasury.
That move was made possible by what many call a “magic” provision in the 2024 General Appropriations Act.
One that authorizes the DOF to transfer excess funds from GOCCs created by special laws, including PhilHealth.
That is why we strongly support Senator JV Ejercito’s call to restore and protect the PhilHealth budget.
If our senators and congressmen truly care about PhilHealth and its poor beneficiaries, they should scrap that provision.
Otherwise, all lawmakers calling for improved PhilHealth services are just fooling our people.
We understand that as DOF secretary, Ralph Recto needs to find funding sources for the budget deficit.
But go get the parked or invested funds by other GOCCs for interest and yield.
Go get those surplus billions invested by GSIS chief Arnulfo Veloso in risky stocks and investigate how much they are worth now.
But please, spare PhilHealth because the poor need those funds now.
We hope the Filipino people will remember Secretary Recto, if he runs for the Senate in 2028, as the brilliant fiscal genius who thought the best place to get money was from the pockets of the poor and the sick.
The truth is, we are not a poor country.
We are a rich country with too many rich politicians and officials feeding off public funds.
The problem is not the lack of money. It is the abundance of greed.
This can change, if lawmakers and government officials put people before projects, health before headlines, and honesty before kickbacks, so no poor patient dies waiting in line for the care they deserve.
Ang nangyayari kasi, kung pera para sa kalusugan, laging kulang. Pero kung pera para sa mga proyektong tinatamaan ng baha’t katiwalian, laging sobra.
Para sa dialysis, rosuvastatin at metformin ng mahihirap, pila muna.
Para sa overpriced na supplies, sasakyan at uniporme, diretso pirma.
Alam nyo bakit? Kasi, sa gobyerno natin, mas mabilis ang kickback kaysa ambulansya.
A frail lola clutched her prescription, quietly asking the nurse if there was a cheaper alternative.
A young father in a faded shirt counted coins to see if he had enough for his child’s antibiotics.
We overheard them talking about the high cost of healthcare and medicines.
Some were worried about the price of dialysis, others about the monthly expense for maintenance medicines.
It was a painful reminder that when it comes to healthcare, the poor are always at the losing end.
Former Senator Ping Lacson revealed that from 2011 to 2025, almost ₱2 trillion was spent on flood control projects.
If the suspicion that 50% of those funds went to corruption is correct, then ₱1 trillion was lost.
That amount could have built 1,000 fully equipped district hospitals. Or 100,000 rural health centers. Or purchased 500,000 dialysis machines.
It could have given 22,000,000 Filipinos with hypertension free medicines for 15 years. Or 7,700,000 diabetics free insulin and oral meds for 20 years. Millions more with high cholesterol the drugs they need to avoid heart attacks and strokes.
Flood control is just one example.
Remember the ₱1.2 billion Cabagan, Isabela bridge that collapsed months after completion.
Or the two controversial Iloilo flyovers, costing ₱1.4 billion, that the DPWH ordered stopped and repaired.
Hundreds of billions more vanish in overpriced DepEd laptops, ghost irrigation canals, expired COVID-19 vaccines, “beautification” projects, ghost fertilizers, and bloated medicine prices.
Experts have also pointed out overpriced items like yellow road barriers at ₱127,320 per meter that should cost only ₱20,000, and “cat’s eyes” at ₱11,000 each when the market price is just ₱1,000.
Funds wasted on these projects could have transformed our healthcare system.
Every peso lost is one less for dialysis machines, rural health centers, and maintenance drugs for the poor.
Imagine a Philippines where every province has a well-equipped hospital. Every barangay a health center.
Every patient with chronic illness receiving free maintenance medicine.
A dialysis patient walking home smiling because they know next week’s session is already covered.
Instead, we have projects that crumble under the first strong rain. Or flyovers with humps that make driving a roller coaster.
Public health cannot wait. Infrastructure can. A delayed road inconveniences. Delayed treatment kills.
Yet last year, the Department of Finance (DOF) transferred part of PhilHealth’s excess funds to the national treasury.
That move was made possible by what many call a “magic” provision in the 2024 General Appropriations Act.
One that authorizes the DOF to transfer excess funds from GOCCs created by special laws, including PhilHealth.
That is why we strongly support Senator JV Ejercito’s call to restore and protect the PhilHealth budget.
If our senators and congressmen truly care about PhilHealth and its poor beneficiaries, they should scrap that provision.
Otherwise, all lawmakers calling for improved PhilHealth services are just fooling our people.
We understand that as DOF secretary, Ralph Recto needs to find funding sources for the budget deficit.
But go get the parked or invested funds by other GOCCs for interest and yield.
Go get those surplus billions invested by GSIS chief Arnulfo Veloso in risky stocks and investigate how much they are worth now.
But please, spare PhilHealth because the poor need those funds now.
We hope the Filipino people will remember Secretary Recto, if he runs for the Senate in 2028, as the brilliant fiscal genius who thought the best place to get money was from the pockets of the poor and the sick.
The truth is, we are not a poor country.
We are a rich country with too many rich politicians and officials feeding off public funds.
The problem is not the lack of money. It is the abundance of greed.
This can change, if lawmakers and government officials put people before projects, health before headlines, and honesty before kickbacks, so no poor patient dies waiting in line for the care they deserve.
Ang nangyayari kasi, kung pera para sa kalusugan, laging kulang. Pero kung pera para sa mga proyektong tinatamaan ng baha’t katiwalian, laging sobra.
Para sa dialysis, rosuvastatin at metformin ng mahihirap, pila muna.
Para sa overpriced na supplies, sasakyan at uniporme, diretso pirma.
Alam nyo bakit? Kasi, sa gobyerno natin, mas mabilis ang kickback kaysa ambulansya.
Aug 14, 2025
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