Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) manually process their members’ transactions at PhilHealth National Capital Region Central Branch in Quezon City on Tuesday, September 28. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News/FileMANILA — Around P37.5 million worth of collaterals for the 30th anniversary celebration of state health insurer PhilHealth this February were disapproved by the PhilHealth board. 

The information was confirmed by the board’s chairperson and Health Secretary Ted Herbosa to ABS-CBN News on Tuesday.

Monday’s PhilHealth board meeting concluded with the decision to disapprove some collaterals including the procurement of almost 18,000 umbrellas worth P7.9 million.

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In a list acquired by ABS-CBN News, other disapproved collaterals include:

-- Perforated mesh stickers (P7.3 million)


-- Tote bag (P1.82 million)


-- Anniversary shirt (P3.64 million)


-- Marketing shirt (P1.94 million)


-- Jacket (P13.65 million)


-- Katsa bag (P750,000)


-- Button pins (P545,000)


“The board seeing the amount, denied the extension except for the commemorative stamp with the PhilPost which was actually approved. All the rest were denied by the board,” Herbosa said.

The health chief said portions of the budget for the anniversary were included in the 2024 budget as the celebration would start at the early part of 2025.

“Those items, special tokens had to be put on an earlier year so that it can be procured through bidding. Since they have to be procured and because of the situation, the defunding of the subsidy, we decided, the board decided to cancel, except for the commemorative stamps.”

Herbosa explains the commemorative stamps, worth more than P500,000 already has an existing contract with PhilPost.

Last week, independent health reform advocate Dr. Tony Leachon lambasted Philhealth for excessively funding what he referred to as a “Christmas party.” His post was accompanied by a document enumerating different anniversary-related projects with their cost totaling almost P138 million.  

As of writing, Leachon’s post has logged more than 610,000 views on social media platform X and has been revised to refer to the agency’s 30th anniversary.

Shortly afterwards, PhilHealth issued a statement saying that the breakdown of expenses in the post were not yet final.

“The approved activities are reasonable, budgeted following existing limits set by the Government, and will be procured under RA (Republic Act No.) 9184 [or the Government Procurement Reform Act],” the statement read.

Asked if PhilHealth’s management has been informed of the development, the health chief confirmed but did not give details of their reaction.

However, Herbosa said that the savings from the disapproved collaterals would definitely stand to benefit PhilHealth members.

“We have saved government money for tokens that could be used for benefits. That’s millions of pesos worth of benefits that we could give to our members,” Herbosa said.

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