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MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang yesterday gave assurance that the health assistance for poor patients, which has drawn flak for promoting political patronage, would not be coursed through politicians.
Critics have questioned the proposed funding hike for the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) in next year’s national budget, saying it is not compatible with the aims of the Universal Health Care Act and places the needy at the mercy of politicians.
Sen. JV Ejercito has said the higher MAIFIP outlay “runs counter to the goal of strengthening systematic, universal coverage under the Universal Health Care Act.”
Critics, including economist Cielo Magno, lament that under the MAIFIP, one has to secure a guarantee letter from politicians before getting health assistance.
MAIFIP has been described as a health pork barrel.
But Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said the assistance would instead be implemented by the Department of Health (DOH).?
“This fund will not be coursed through politicians. It will go directly to the local government units, to the LGU hospitals and it will be implemented by the DOH,” the Palace press officer said at a press briefing.?
It is unclear if local government executives such as mayors and provincial governors will be given a say in accessing MAIFIP. Many LGU officials are related to members of Congress.
The MAIFIP outlay has been augmented from P24.23 billion in the National Expenditure Program to P51.6 billion in the bicameral version of the national budget.
Castro said the DOH is seeking a higher budget for MAIFIP next year to implement the zero-balance billing policy in hospitals under local governments.
“There are hospitals that are not linked to DOH hospitals and the aim is to expand the services to the people through the zero-balance billing in LGU hospitals,” she added.
The administration’s zero-balance billing policy seeks to ensure that all eligible patients are discharged without paying any out-of-pocket expenses for services covered by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
Under the policy, PhilHealth members admitted in a DOH hospital’s basic accommodation or ward are fully covered for hospitalization, diagnostic services and medicines included in the state insurer’s case rates.
‘No guarantee letters’
Majority senators have agreed to push for a special provision in the 2026 budget that will prevent politicians from intervening in the implementation of programs, such as through guarantee letters for medical assistance, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson said yesterday.
In an interview with “Storycon” on One News, Lacson said he is open to changing his mind regarding the P51 billion allocated for MAIFIP.
He earlier said he would not sign the bicameral conference committee report, given his concerns over the MAIFIP allocation, which is accessed through guarantee letters from politicians.
“What we agreed on… is absolutely no guarantee letters from politicians,” he said, referring to the senators’ position on MAIFIP.
“There is already a prepared special provision. I am studying whether the safeguard is foolproof,” he added.
According to Lacson, the special provision will cover the entire budget and prevent politicians from intervening in programs such as the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers or TUPAD of the Department of Labor and Employment.
It remains unclear if the House contingent in the bicam will agree to such provision.
If the provision makes it into the approved budget, Lacson said guarantee letters will no longer be honored. Instead, it will be the DOH that will take charge of MAIFIP’s implementation, along with other health programs of the PhilHealth, the senator pointed out.
“As long as this is subsumed under the universal health care program, in compliance with the Universal Health Care Act, I have no problem with it,” Lacson said.
“Those who implement it should be blind, very objective. They should have no regard for politics, no political color,” he added.
Ejercito urged the bicam to reconsider the massive increase in funding for MAIFIP, as it “might be interpreted as politically mediated access to health care.”
Instead of expanding MAIFIP, he proposed channeling additional health funds directly to PhilHealth or to hospitals implementing zero-balance billing.
“If our goal is to ensure proper medical assistance to the poor and to those just one illness away from poverty, we must seriously reconsider the massive increase in MAIFIP,” he urged.
Budget amendments
Meanwhile, the DOH gave its backing to the Senate amendment to the General Appropriations Bill that introduced funding for zero-balance billing expansion to LGU hospitals.
“This will allow Filipinos to avail of zero-balance billing not just at DOH hospitals, but even in level 3 (large) LGU-owned hospitals,” the agency said in a statement.
The DOH also proposed the attachment of a special provision to the MAIFIP program to ensure that most of it will go to zero-balance billing expansion to LGU hospitals.
Discrepancies
Progressive group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) slammed the bicameral committee for increasing pork barrel funds in the 2026 budget at the expense of accountability.
In a statement, Bayan said the bicam expanded funding for farm-to-market roads and the DOH’s medical assistance program, programs often cited for political patronage and irregularities.
“Instead of heeding calls to cut or substantially reduce pork and patronage programs, the bicam increased allocations for these notorious channels of political pork,” the group said.
“These increases expose the hollowness of official rhetoric about budget reform,” Bayan said, adding that ordinary Filipinos continue to face rising prices and inadequate public services while discretionary funds are fattened for political favors.
On education, while the P961.3-billion allocation for 2026 has been touted as “historic,” the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said it is not enough to achieve genuine reform.
In a statement, ACT said that while the Department of Education’s budget was raised by P86.8 billion from the 2025 budget allocation of P737 billion, it is nowhere near enough to decisively address massive shortages and backlogs in basic education and provides no funding for a substantial salary increase for teachers and education workers.
Despite the increase, the education sector’s budget remains stuck at just 4.5 percent of gross domestic product with a total of P1.37 trillion – far below the internationally recommended six percent of GDP needed to start reversing decades of underfunding, resolve massive shortages and raise education quality.
ACT said President Marcos’ administration and Congress should go beyond token increases and immediately raise the education budget to at least six percent of GDP; fund substantial salary increase for teachers and education workers, alongside the timely release of all benefits; address chronic shortages in teachers, education support personnel, classrooms, learning and teaching materials and other facilities and reorient national priorities away from pork barrel, militarization and debt servicing toward social services, with education at the core.
On the subject of unprogrammed funds, House deputy minority leader and ML party-list Rep. Leila de Lima said it “should not only be reduced or made zero” but “removed totally.”
“Even if the Senate version of the budget made cuts on the unprogrammed appropriations, the fact remains that there still is UA. But there should be no place in the budget for the so-called unprogrammed appropriations. It’s unconstitutional,” De Lima said.
In defending her position, De Lima subscribed to the opinion of Supreme Court Justice Ramon Paul Hernando.
“As we learned, funding for the reported anomalous flood control projects came from UA. Let’s remove it totally so that we can put a stop to this practice of UAs being used as a source of corruption among lawmakers,” she said. — Janvic Mateo, Neil Jayson Servallos, Mayen Alquitran, Mark Ernest Villeza, Evelyn Macairan, Delon Porcalla
