PhilHealth staff ordered to repay P6.35 million cash birthday gifts in 2014

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The Audit Committee is of the opinion that birthday gifts given as benefits have no legal basis and amount to double compensation

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered officials and employees of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to refund the cash birthday gifts they received in 2014 amounting to P6.35 million.

The COA refused the cash donations due to a lack of legal basis and considered them as double compensation.

In its appeal, the PhilHealth argued that birthday gifts in the form of monetary benefits were not new. It claimed that it had autonomy as a public financial institution and was entitled to the same independence as other GFIs.

However, COA said these arguments had already been considered and rejected.

“The grounds raised by PhilHealth are merely a repetition of the arguments in the petition for review, which were considered and judiciously adopted in the decision,” COA said.

State auditors also rely on the Supreme Court ruling PhilHealth vs. COA of 2022, which declared that the payment of birthday gifts to staff had no legal basis as it was not mentioned among the permissible non-integrated allowances in the Compensation and Position Classification Act.

“Just to reiterate, the extent of PhilHealth’s power to fix the compensation of its personnel and determine the grant of allowances and benefits to its officers and employees is not absolute and is at all times subject to existing rules and regulations regulations,” according to the COA. .

The COA has held the following PhilHealth employees liable:

Former PhilHealth President and CEO Alexander Padilla
Ann Marie San Andres, senior manager of the Audit Department
Hannah Lorraine Dalisay, Head of Accounting and Internal Control
Fiscal Controller IV Juvy Balolong
Marilou Navarroza, head of the budget department
Tax inspector IV Willie Bumacod
Senior Manager Arsenia Torres
Jonathan Mangaoang, chief officer of the Human Resources Department
Head of HR Department Alejandro Dennis Lim
Fiscal Comptroller III Theresa Tindoy
Fiscal Comptroller III Rommel Reyes
Fiscal Comptroller III Dalisay Satrain
635 employees (beneficiaries/recipients)

– Rappler.com