WE WERE CHARGED TWICE. AND SOME PEOPLE STILL DON'T GET IT

I wrote about this earlier.

In that first piece, I used the word robbery. Because honestly, ano ba ang tawag mo sa pag kinuha ang pera na hindi naman sa kanila, openly, then spent it like they had the right to do it?

I deleted that post.

Aside from being too short (which is not really my style), it was riding on Doc Tony’s post as a caption for the reshare. I don’t like that idea.

If I’m going to say something this serious, I want to say it in my own space, in my own words, and with enough room to explain it properly.

I was also writing out of anger. And while I still understand why that word came to me, I want to tone this one down because facts are more important than how I feel.

So here are the facts.

WHERE THE P60 BILLION CAME FROM

The P60 billion sat inside PhilHealth’s reserve fund, built over the years from mandatory premium contributions by workers and employers.

This was protected health insurance money. It was collected for member benefits.

In 2024, government transferred P60 billion of those reserves to the National Treasury in three tranches under the legal basis it later tried to justify as authority to move supposed excess funds.

WHERE THE MONEY WENT

Later, government itself gave an explanation for where the money went.

About 78 percent of the P60 billion was used for health and social programs like hazard pay for health workers during the pandemic, medical assistance for indigent patients, hospital equipment, and facilities.

The remaining share, they said, went to counterpart funding for big-ticket infrastructure and social development projects.

That is the government’s version.

And now the obvious question: do we actually know if the money was spent exactly the way the SolGen and DOF said it was?

Not fully.

What we have on record are official government claims presented in statements and in the Supreme Court proceedings.

What we do not yet have, at least not publicly in full detail, is an independent, line-by-line audit proving that every peso went exactly where government says it went.

That distinction changes how we should talk about the P60 billion.

So if we are being careful and fair, the honest phrasing is this: according to the SolGen and DOF, this is where the money went.

Until a full audit is publicly laid out, that is the breakdown government has given the country.

Still, one thing is already clear enough: the money was disbursed.

Once money has already been disbursed, you are no longer looking at a simple refund.

WHAT MOST PEOPLE MISS

Here is what most people fail to understand.

Tagalugin natin para malinaw: hindi pera ng gobyerno ang PhilHealth money. Pinakialaman nila. Inutos na ibalik ang perang hindi sa kanila.

That part is easy enough to grasp.

The harder question is this: paano ibinalik?

It was not the exact same P60 billion being physically restored to PhilHealth, because that original amount had already been spent.

What happened instead was that Congress restored the amount through the 2026 GAA, the national budget for that year.

That has a very plain meaning.

The replacement came from fresh public money.

The national budget is funded by taxes, other government revenues, and borrowings backed by the public.

So — kung may pakialam ka, ito qng dapat mong ikagalit — the public first paid through PhilHealth premiums, then paid again when public funds were used to replace what had already been taken and spent.

That is the sequence.

The double payment argument rests on that sequence.

WHAT THE SUPREME COURT ACTUALLY SAID

Then the Supreme Court came in and settled the legal question.

The Court struck down the legal basis for the transfer.

It voided the special provision and the DOF circular used to justify the sweep of PhilHealth’s “excess” funds, ruling that the mechanism violated the Universal Health Care law and the constitutional rules on earmarked health funds.

The decision also blocked the transfer of the remaining P29.9 billion that had not yet been moved.

And it ordered the government to return the P60 billion to PhilHealth via the national budget for 2026.

After that ruling, the core issue could no longer be blurred. Government had no constitutional and statutory right to treat PhilHealth reserves as a handy budget filler.

WHY LEACHON’S POINT HOLDS

Dr. Tony Leachon described the situation as double jeopardy, and that framing has a factual basis.

I should be clear here too: I am not a fan of Doc Tony, and I am not part of his circle. It just so happens that on this issue, our advocacies align.

His point is simple. Filipinos paid once as PhilHealth members whose contributions built the reserve. Then Filipinos paid again as taxpayers when the 2026 budget replaced what had already been spent.

You can argue with the tone.

You can argue with the phrase.

But if you are saying the substance is wrong, then you have to explain which fact is wrong: that the money came from PhilHealth reserves, that it was spent, that the Court declared the transfer unconstitutional, or that the replacement was charged to the national budget.

Most of the online criticism falls apart at that point.

WHY THE CALL FOR RECTO TO RESIGN HAS BASIS

Now to the person at the center of this: Ralph Recto.

This is not just some random name dragged in for drama.

Recto was the Finance Secretary when the order went out to move PhilHealth’s “excess” funds.

Recto signed the directive directing PhilHealth to remit P89.9 billion in what DOF called excess and idle subsidies, of which P60 billion was actually transferred before the Supreme Court stopped the rest.

Recto then personally defended the transfer before the Supreme Court, calling it legal, moral, and economically sound — and even a moral imperative.

He argued that the move did not touch member contributions and framed it as putting idle government money to better use.

The Supreme Court unanimously disagreed with the legal architecture that enabled that move.

So when Leachon and others say Recto should resign, they are not inventing an issue out of nowhere. They are pointing to a concrete record:

- Recto pushed and justified the policy that moved P60 billion out of PhilHealth’s reserves.

- The country’s highest court later declared the transfer mechanism void and ordered the money returned.

- Labor groups, health advocates, and even some legal experts have publicly called this a constitutional breach that placed millions of Filipinos’ health fund at risk, even if the Court’s later vote spared Recto from criminal liability.

If Recto had not been so eager to reach into a fund he should have left alone, we would not be in this mess.

No diversion, no unconstitutional transfer ruling, no need to rebuild the fund through the 2026 budget, no double payment narrative for people like Leachon to hammer on.

That is the context behind the call for his resignation.

It is not purely emotional. It rests on a Supreme Court decision, on Recto’s own public defense of the move, and on the very real financial consequences for PhilHealth and its members.

THE THREE WHO WENT AFTER HIM

When Leachon called for Ralph Recto to resign, three congresswomen quickly defended him: Janette Garin, Gerville Luistro, and Ysabel Maria Zamora.

Garin dismissed Leachon as someone who was just sumasawsaw, while Luistro and Zamora described his criticism as misplaced and detached.

But that response is where the problem starts.

The Supreme Court had already ruled that the transfer mechanism was unconstitutional.

In that situation, a citizen demanding accountability is not the misplaced part of the story.

The more troubling response came from lawmakers using their energy to swat at the person raising the issue instead of confronting the unconstitutional act itself.

That is their job. Supposedly.

Their job is to monitor, question, and criticize these moves before they reach the point where the Supreme Court has to clean up the mess.

If they had done that work with enough seriousness and urgency, Doc Tony would not be the one forced into the role of public alarm bell.

I’ll say this too: I actually like Rep. Gerville Luistro. I think she’s doing an excellent job in the impeachment process, and I’ve been taking note of that. But liking her work in one arena does not mean I will agree with her all the time.

If she does good work, I’ll say so.

If I think she’s wrong here, I’ll say that too.

That is how this should work.

ANO BANG MASAMA SA MAKISAWSAW?

One of the cheap shots thrown at Leachon was that he was sumasawsaw.

But ano bang masama sa makisawsaw kung public money ang pinag-uusapan?

Why should politicians act as if they alone have the right to speak? Why is it called oversight when they do it, but sumasawsaw when a doctor, an ordinary citizen, or a PhilHealth-paying worker asks where the money went?

Public money invites public scrutiny.

In fact, it requires it.

PhilHealth contributions are not personal funds of public officials.

They belong to a system meant to protect Filipino health, and every contributor has the right to question what happened when that money was diverted and later declared unconstitutional.

THE FAIR NUANCE

To be fair, if the government’s own breakdown is accurate, then a large part of the original P60 billion did go to real health and social services.

We have to acknowledge that.

But that still does not erase the structural problem.

The law did not say PhilHealth reserves can be tapped whenever officials believe the purpose is good enough.

The point of a protected reserve is that it remains protected even when someone in power claims a noble reason to use it.

The legal wall exists for a reason.

Once government can cross it whenever it wants, PhilHealth stops feeling like protected social insurance and starts looking like a convenient pool of cash.

We can recognize that and still see the structural problem.

WHAT THIS REALLY SHOWED

This whole episode showed how easily protected funds can be rebranded as excess when government wants room to maneuver.

It also showed how quickly some officials and their defenders move to police tone instead of confront substance.

But the substance is already on record.

The money came from PhilHealth reserves.

The government says it was spent in specific ways, but the public still deserves a full accounting.

The Supreme Court ruled the transfer mechanism unconstitutional and ordered the P60 billion returned through the budget.

And the restoration came through the 2026 national budget, which means the public carried the burden again.

No spin here. Everything above follows the record.