00:00The Supreme Court approved the order of the Commission on Audit to re-distribute the Cash Birthday Gift distributed by PhilHealth to its employees in 2014.
00:10The total amount is more than 6 million pesos.
00:13PhilHealth's answer to Bucky Polido's claim.
00:20From April 2010 to April 2013, officials and more than 600 employees of PhilHealth received a 5,000 pesos Cash Birthday Gift.
00:29It was approved by the Union of Employees and Management of PhilHealth under their Collective Negotiation Agreement.
00:36It was extended until 2016, but for the amount of 10,000 pesos, even though the Commission on Audit earned it in 2014.
00:43That's why the COA issued a Notice of Disallowance.
00:46It re-distributes the Cash Birthday Gift, but only for the year 2014, which reached more than 6 million pesos.
00:55PhilHealth appealed, but it was rejected by the Commission in its decision in December 2023.
01:00The Supreme Court also approved the COA.
01:03The COA said that since there is no Cash Birthday Gift in the list of exempted from the Salary Standardization Law, it is considered a double compensation.
01:12It also said that the officials of PhilHealth have no good faith in distributing the Cash Birthday Gift because there is a violation of the law.
01:21It cannot blame them for the violations of the law.
01:25That's why it can answer the officials behind it.
01:29The COA said that the employees who received the Cash Birthday Gift should be reprimanded because it is considered an unjust enrichment or unprofitable payment.
01:38PhilHealth said that the benefits were only implemented because the law states that they have fiscal autonomy.
01:45When the COA said that it was a violation of the law, it stopped its distribution.
01:49It is based on Section 16N of our law, RA 7875, which states that the corporation has fiscal autonomy.
02:03If the decision was rejected, PhilHealth said, they are ready to collect money.
02:07They will just study the mechanism and the collection of money of officials and employees who are no longer in PhilHealth.
02:13The refund will be coming from the employees, not from the fund of PhilHealth.
02:18For GMA Integrated News, Macky Pulido, for Tuto News, 24 Hours.
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