Transfer of P4-B from OWWA to Philhealth

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:06:00 04/27/2011

MANILA, Philippines—In 2004, critics assailed then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for allegedly authorizing the diversion to her presidential election campaign of some P4 billion from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) funds to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth).

They said OWWA funds, amassed from the $25 collected from each departing overseas Filipino worker (OFW), supposedly financed the Philhealth insurance cards which Arroyo distributed during her campaign rallies all over the country.

Former Solicitor General Frank Chavez, then seeking a Senate seat under Sen. Raul Roco’s Alyansa ng Pag-Asa, sought the disqualification of Arroyo for allegedly using public funds for her campaign.

Malacañang however explained that the cards, which bore Arroyo’s picture, were part of the President’s commitment to provide healthcare to poor Filipinos.

In 2005, almost a year after Arroyo won the vote, then Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. called for her impeachment, claiming she illegally used trust funds. He said that OWWA resources “cannot be used for any purpose other than that specified in the law that created them.”

Palace snubs inquiry
In July 2006, questions on the OWWA funds were revived when Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon Al Francis Bichara claimed that he had not received a single cent from OWWA for the evacuation of Filipinos from war-torn Lebanon.

The OWWA transmitted $150,000 to Bichara, four days after his complaint got wide publicity in Manila, prompting the Senate decision to call the inquiry.

However, government officials snubbed the Senate inquiry by invoking Executive Order No. 464, which required administration officials to seek authorization from Arroyo before appearing in congressional inquiries.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III later told media that no irregularity attended the transfer of P530 million in OWWA funds to Philhealth.

Duque explained that the first tranche of OFW funds—P300 million—was transferred to Philhealth on March 16, 2005, or 10 months after the May 2004 elections. Another P230 million was transferred the following month, he said.

He said that part of the P530 million, which represented 15 percent of the total OWWA’s Medicare fund, went to pay OFW claims in 137 hospitals. Lawrence de Guzman, Inquirer Research

Source: Inquirer Archives