Gov’t subsidies jumped 120% to P33.76B

State subsidies to government-owned firms more than doubled in the first eight months of the year, supporting mainly the administration’s health, housing and electrification programs.

Total subsidies amounted to P33.76 billion from January to August, up year-on-year by 120 percent, documents from the Department of Finance showed.

In August alone, subsidies rose 31 percent to P1.79 billion.

The biggest recipient of financial support in the eight-month period was Philippine Health insurance Corp. (Philhealth), which accounted for P11.97 billion of the total.

Officials said the subsidies to Philhealth were meant to support the Aquino administration’s universal healthcare program, which intends to provide health insurance benefits to all Filipinos.

The second-biggest recipient of state subsidies was the National Housing Authority (NHA), which got P8.26 billion.

The budget department earlier said the government was allocating more funds for housing to transfer informal settlers from waterways and risky areas to safer places.

It said the need to relocate some informal settlers was highlighted by recent typhoons that endangered the lives of families living in these high-risk areas.

The National Electrification Administration came in as the third-biggest recipient of subsidies so far in the year with P3.75 billion of the total.

Officials said the funding support for NEA was meant to pursue electrification projects in remote areas that still had no electricity.

The two other institutions that belonged to the top five recipients of subsidies in the first eight months were the National Food Authority (NFA) and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), which got P2 billion and P1.2 billion, respectively.

The increase in state subsidies came despite the push of the government to make state-owned firms more financially independent and to contribute more dividends to the national government.

Officials said some firms, mainly financial institutions, were contributing more to state coffers. However, they said other agencies needed funding support to widen the coverage of their services.