SENATE, Pasay City — Voicing strong reservations to the bicameral conference committee report regarding the 2025 national budget, Senator Christopher Lawrence ‘Bong’ Go questioned some provisions, particularly the removal of the proposed allocation of funds for the country’s primary healthcare insurer.

Go, who chairs the Senate committee on health and demography, refrained from immediately signing it because he wanted to review the details concerning the reconciled budget first.

“Why am I signing a document without knowing the details?” he pointed out.

Similar to the earlier position of Senator Ronald ‘Bato’ Dela Rosa, Go cited that he still had to check the details of the bicameral report before affixing his signature for his affirmation.

“I haven’t even read the whole thing. The report (was) just shown to everyone,” he noted.

Go specifically inquired over the removal of the proposed budget for the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), criticizing the decision to allocate zero funding to PhilHealth while emphasizing that health should remain a top priority in the national budget.

“I just want to manifest my strong reservations about some of the provisions of the bicameral conference committee report, which I find unacceptable,” the opposition senator enthused.

“I don’t know where the ₱74 billion that should have gone for PhilHealth or health went. If the budget for PhilHealth is cut because its benefits are insufficient, it should be given to health programs. It should not be given to others,” he asserted.

Go mentioned that lessons from the recent Covid-19 pandemic underscore the need for sustained investment in health care.

“It is equal to the life of every Filipino. So, we must recognize the priority of health. While we acknowledge that PhilHealth still has billions in reserve funds, they said it’s ₱500 billion, as discovered and discussed in five hearings conducted by the committee on health, subsidy from the national government may still be needed to implement necessary reforms and improvements in its benefit packages,” he rationalized.

In ending, the senator warned that insufficient funding would adversely impact vulnerable sectors who desperately lack sufficient health care services.

“Don’t go for zero budget! . . . Poor patients will be the ones who will suffer. Let’s give PhilHealth a proper and sufficient budget and encourage PhilHealth to maximize the use of its funds for their health-related programs and services,” Go concluded.