Malacañang on Saturday took potshots at several groups that claimed that the PhilHealth cards were intended for use in the 2013 election campaign.
But even before the Palace could parry the blows came another group, the Federation of Filipino Communities, which demanded a congressional investigation on the increase in contributions planned by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda dared the party-list lawmakers to stop politicizing a project that is meant to serve the Filipinos.
“Can they not distinguish what is politics and what is for the people? We are serving the people. Our promise is we are going to alleviate poverty”, Lacierda said.
The Palace was reacting to Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan who said that the Aquino administration wanted to distribute health insurance cards worth P12.61 billion during the election campaign next year.
She claimed that a huge chunk of the Health Department’s budget would be used for election purposes.
“We are serving the people. Our promise is we are going to alleviate poverty. This is one way of doing that,” Lacierda said.”That’s a myopic view coming from the Left.”
Ilagan criticized President Aquino III’s policy of privatizing health care services and taking the funding from public hospitals and transferring it to PhilHealth.
“Why spend P12.6 billion for the distribution of PhilHealth cards when the same amount can be allocated to public hospitals, rural health units and barangay health centers so that they can provide services to indigents for free?” she said.
“With this budget, will incumbent candidates be giving out PhilHealth cards in 2013 as they did in 2004 and 2007?” she said.
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