(UPDATES) MORE than 60 health care worker groups on Friday urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to order the return of the P89.9 billion in unused funds to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

The groups stressed in a press conference that the fund should be used to meet the health care needs of the underprivileged.

"We denounce the Department of Finance's (DoF) diversion of P89.9 billion of this inappropriate excess for purposes other than the service of the patients we care for," they said.

The Department of Health (DoH) said on Thursday that P27.5 billion of the unused funds will be used to pay the health emergency allowance (HEA) of government medical workers.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman released the HEA funds on July 5 in compliance with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s directive to clear all pending hazard pay enhancement allowances for health care workers.

Health workers protest in front of the Jose Reyes Memorial Hospital in Manila on July 19, 2024 as they call to demand for higher wages and to denounce understaffing in hospitals. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Health workers protest in front of the Jose Reyes Memorial Hospital in Manila on July 19, 2024 as they call to demand for higher wages and to denounce understaffing in hospitals. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Health workers protest in front of the Jose Reyes Memorial Hospital in Manila on July 19, 2024 as they call to demand for higher wages and to denounce understaffing in hospitals. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Health workers protest in front of the Jose Reyes Memorial Hospital in Manila on July 19, 2024 as they call to demand for higher wages and to denounce understaffing in hospitals. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Health workers protest in front of the Jose Reyes Memorial Hospital in Manila on July 19, 2024 as they call to demand for higher wages and to denounce understaffing in hospitals. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA

The allocation covers payments for 5,039,926 unpaid HEA claims and 4,283 Covid-19 sickness and death compensation claims for eligible workers.

Bu Castro, former president of the Philippine Medical Association (PMA), said that if the funds are not returned after the President's State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, they would file a case questioning its legality.

The groups, to which the PMA belongs, expressed concern about the adverse impact of transferring funds on the efficient delivery of health services, particularly to poor PhilHealth members.

They said reallocating unused PhilHealth funds violates Section 11 of the Universal Healthcare Law (Republic Act 11223), since it essentially takes away money intended for health care.

Section 11 mandates that any surplus in the PhilHealth reserve fund should be used to enhance benefits and reduce member contributions, and explicitly prohibits the transfer of any part of the reserve fund or its income to the general fund of the national government or any of its agencies, including government-owned or -controlled corporations or GOCCs.

Advocates also mentioned that this action violates Republic Act 11346, which allocates 80 percent of sugar-sweetened beverage tax revenues and 80 percent of half of tobacco tax revenues to PhilHealth for the Universal Healthcare Law.

Redirecting the funds for other purposes equates to taking away money intended for health care, said the groups.

The health care workers said PhilHealth has underspent because it has not adequately expanded its benefit packages, leaving a significant unmet need for health care.

Antonio Dans, president of the Asia-Pacific Center for Evidence-Based Practice, called the move to redirect excess funds an injustice, saying that the people, who are the owners of the fund, should have been consulted first.

Maricar Limpin, former president of the Philippine College of Physicians, hopes the DoH will find another way to allocate funds for HEA, highlighting that the remitted funds can still be returned.

The DoF has said that using unused funds from GOCCs for public programs is preferable to borrowing or introducing new taxes. Dans said the funds should have been sourced from other sectors instead.