BIZ BUZZ: PhilHealth fund transfer ‘legal’ and ‘efficient,’ says Recto

What do you do when state-run corporations have excess/unspent funds? For Finance Secretary Ralph Recto—the man tasked to raise money to bridge the government’s large budget deficit—moving those funds to bankroll public projects and programs must be both “legal” and “efficient.”

But in the case of P200-billion unused subsidies of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. that he wanted back to the national treasury, Recto believes “it’s more of an efficiency argument than a legal argument” at this point.

READ: PhilHealth fund transfer: What to know

In an interview with Biz Buzz, Recto maintained that utilizing the excess funds of the two state-owned corporations made sense as the economy is still in need of more juice to heal from the onslaught of the pandemic. A study by the Department of Finance (DOF) showed that tapping unused funds would result in a potential 0.8-percentage point increase in gross domestic product and generate up to 600,000 jobs.

At the same time, Recto argued that it’s not as if PhilHealth had lost a huge amount of money after the impounding. The finance czar noted that the DOF only touched PhilHealth’s unspent subsidies from the national government, and that the state health insurer didn’t really spend much for pandemic response as the national government and private sector were the ones that did foot the bill for vaccines.

“[During the] pandemic, wala namang ginastos ang PhilHealth. Kumita pa eh. (…PhilHealth didn’t have to spend. It even made money.)

Meanwhile, the national government now has to raise cash as fast as it can as more pandemic debts are falling due soon, he added.

“I’m wearing the DOF hat. To me, it’s more of an efficiency argument,” said Recto, a veteran lawmaker prior to this role.

Nonetheless, Recto said he wouldn’t have pushed for this if it’s illegal. From the DOF’s point of view, it is legal.

So what happens next you might ask? With the fund transfer being challenged at the Supreme Court, the finance chief said the government would obey whatever the high tribunal or Congress would say.

“If Congress passes a law to instruct me to stop it and to return the money, I will. If the Supreme Court says the same thing, I will follow,” he said. —Ian Nicolas P. Cigaral

Others want a bite of AirSWIFT, too

It looks like Gokongwei-led Cebu Pacific isn’t the only one interested in taking over Ayala Land Inc.’s (ALI) boutique airline AirSWIFT.

No less than ALI leasing and hospitality head Mariana Zobel de Ayala confirmed that they are in talks with other airlines.

READ: Cebu Pacific eyes Airswift

“It’s not exclusive in the sense that we are entertaining several [other airlines],” the next-generation Zobel leader told reporters on Wednesday, adding that they were still discussing the terms, including whether ALI would sell the entire airline or just part of it.

When asked to name the other airlines, she merely smiled and said, “There are only so many local airlines.”

Should Cebu Pacific—or any other airline, for that matter—successfully buy out AirSWIFT, it should continue servicing the Lio estate in Palawan, this being the main gateway to tourist hot spot El Nido where ALI owns four other upscale island-resorts.

“We still own the airport there and we would want them to continue … whoever ends up purchasing AirSWIFT would need to fly to service our properties, our resorts in Palawan,” ALI chief financial officer Augusto Bengzon said.

But why is AirSWIFT up for grabs, anyway? According to Zobel, it’s because ALI wants to focus on what it does best: land development and other “land-related products.”

“We hope to continue focusing on that and ensure that we can deliver the right experience by partnering with a group whose focus is aviation,” she said. —Meg J. Adonis