Ralph Recto faces plunder complaint over P60-B Philhealth fund transfer

Health advocate Dr. Tony Leachon on Monday filed plunder and technical malversation complaints against Executive Secretary Ralph Recto and other Cabinet officials over the transfer to the National Treasury of the P60-billion excess funds of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) and P107 billion of Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) funds.

Leachon, who filed the complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman, said his complaint is backed by the 2025 Supreme Court decision which declared as unconstitutional a special provision of the 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA) or the National Budget law authorizing the return of the excess funds of government-owned or controlled corporations such as the PhilHealth to the National Treasury.

The said special provision of the 2024 GAA is what initially prompted the Department of Finance (DOF), then headed by Recto, to issue a circular directing the transfer of P89.9 billion of PhilHealth funds to the National Treasury. When the High Court made the decision, it only ordered the return of P60 billion since only P60 billion out of the P89.9 billion PhilHealth funds were transferred to the National Treasury.

“These P60 billion [PhilHealth] funds, meant for indigent families and primary care, were stripped of their rightful purpose, betraying the people’s right to health. PhilHealth’s [already] P356.6 billion deficit left hospitals unpaid, cancer and dialysis programs starved, and millions of Filipinos abandoned,” Leachon said in a statement.

“The so-called 'restoration' of ₱60B in [the] 2026 budget was a hollow gesture — too late for families already buried in debt, too late for patients who never received care. This is not merely a legal matter but a moral one. The ₱60 billion could have saved lives, kept hospitals afloat, and brought dignity to families in despair. Instead, it was stolen from the sick and the poor,” he added.

Under the law, plunder is committed when any public officer who, by himself/herself in connivance with members of his/her family, relatives by affinity or consanguinity, business associates, subordinates or other persons, amasses, accumulates or acquires ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt or criminal acts in the total amount of at least P50 million.

Likewise, the plunder law states that “any person who participated with the said public officer in the commission of an offense contributing to the crime of plunder shall likewise be punished for such offense.”

Technical malversation, on the other hand, is committed when a public official “applies public funds or property under his/her administration to some public use; and the public use for which the public funds or property were applied is different from the purpose for which they were originally appropriated by law or ordinance.”

Further, Leachon alleged that ₱107 billion worth of PDIC funds sent to the National Treasury “weakened depositor safeguards and eroded trust in financial institutions.”

“Filing these charges is a duty to the Filipino people — to restore integrity, deter future abuses, and reclaim the promise of universal health care,” Leachon said.

GMA News Online has reached out to Recto for comment and will publish it as soon as it is available. —KG, GMA News