Budgetary support extended to state-run firms ballooned in April after Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) regained P60 billion in funds that the Supreme Court ruled had been unlawfully transferred to the National Treasury.
Data from the Treasury’s latest cash operations report showed subsidies to government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) and other state entities at P66.28 billion in April, more than triple the P18.15 billion and P14.54 billion recorded a month and year earlier.
This pushed GOCC budgetary support in the first four months of the year to P93.13 billion, up 150.8 percent from P37.13 billion in the same period a year earlier.
The sharp increase was primarily attributed to the P60-billion given PhilHealth in April, which the Treasury identified as the return of fund balances from previously unutilized subsidies that had been remitted to the Treasury in 2024.
Other government corporations subsidies, meanwhile, climbed almost fourfold to P73.79 billion in the first four months from P18.68 billion a year earlier.
Subsidies to major non-financial government corporations rose more modestly by 2.2 percent to P18.33 billion from P17.94 billion.
Government financial institutions received P1 billion in the first four months of the year, nearly double the P509 million recorded a year earlier.
PhilHealth accounted for nearly 91 percent of total subsidies released in April. It had received no subsidy since 2024.
Other major beneficiaries in April included the National Food Authority (P2.47 billion), National Irrigation Administration (P917 million), Philippine Rice Research Institute (P362 million) and Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (P213 million).
