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THE Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the further transfer of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) excess funds to the National Treasury.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The TRO has effectively stopped the scheduled transfer in November of P29.9 billion, representing the fourth and final tranche of the PhilHealth funds amounting to P89.9 billion in unused reserves.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n PhilHealth had already transferred P20 billion in May, P10 billion in August and P30 billion this month.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The TRO was issued in response to three consolidated petitions challenging the government’s reallocation of excess reserve funds from government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) to support unprogrammed appropriations in the national budget.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to SC spokesperson Camille Ting, the TRO addresses the immediate need to preserve the funds within PhilHealth.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, Ting clarified that the TRO does not require previously transferred amounts to be returned to PhilHealth.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The decision follows three high-profile petitions brought forward by the 1Sambayan Coalition, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III and Bayan Muna Chairman Neri Colmenares.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to the petitioners, the reallocation of PhilHealth funds contravenes the intended use of GOCC reserves, potentially endangering health care services for Filipinos dependent on PhilHealth support.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The petitions stated that diverting PhilHealth’s excess funds could compromise the stability of the insurance system and jeopardize the benefits provided to millions of Filipinos.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Supreme Court ordered the respondents, including the Department of Finance and other government officials, to submit their comments on the petitions and TRO application within a strict 10-day non-extendible period upon receiving notice.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meanwhile, PhilHealth said they respect the Supreme Court’s ruling.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “We fully respect and will abide by the decision of the Supreme Court on the issue. We remain focused on our mission to provide all Filipinos with adequate financial protection against health risks through better and responsive benefit packages and availment policies whenever and wherever they need them most,” PhilHealth said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Department of Finance also said it would respect the Court decision.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the further transfer of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) excess funds to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9673"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9675,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9673\/revisions\/9675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}