21/11/2025
UNITY STATEMENT OF THE COALITION FOR PEOPLE’S RIGHT TO HEALTH
AGAINST CORRUPTION
November 21, 2025
The Coalition for People’s Right to Health, along with community health workers from Community-based Health Programs (CBHPs) and partner people’s organizations across the country, reassert that, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which recognized the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, the 1987 Philippine Constitution, and the principles of primary health care as elucidated in the Alma Ata Declaration, HEALTH IS A RIGHT, and that the GOVERNMENT HAS A MANDATE TO RESPECT, PROTECT AND FULFIL HEALTH AS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT OF ITS PEOPLE.
We call for an end to the systemic corruption in the Philippine government, through the following:
● beginning, but not ending, with accountability for all involved: lahat ng sangkot, dapat managot. All individuals involved in corruption-related controversies, regardless of how long ago, must be investigated and must face justice.
● public and legislative scrutiny of the budget and the budget process. No presidential certification of emergency should be permitted without an official declaration of a state of emergency. No amendments should be made by small committees, or insertions by bicameral committees. The public and the media should have access to all budget meetings at all levels of government.
● prohibition of pork barrel funds, including discretionary funds, unprogrammed appropriations, lump sum items, and confidential and intelligence funds for agencies with no surveillance or national security functions.
● improved transparency by giving the public access to all public officials’ Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs) and to budget documents at all levels of government.
● electoral reform, including passage and implementation of the Anti-Dynasty Law, ensuring that the party-list system is limited to marginalized and underrepresented sectors, and prosecution of vote-buying and electoral fraud.
● strengthening of the audit process at all levels of government,
We demand an end to corruption and mismanagement within the health system:
● review and amend PhilHealth policies that place the bulk of the burden of health financing on the people to ensure financial risk protection for all Filipinos.
● review and audit PhilHealth funds and premiums, in light of PhilHealth’s reported savings, despite only covering 44.7% of total health expenditures last 2024, and significantly decrease members’ monthly contributions.
● review and audit the anomalous spending, procurements, and processes within the Department of Health (DOH) that result in the squandering of the national budget on failed projects and corruption, including but not limited to the reported ghost super health centers, the Pharmally scandal, and the perennial expiry of medicines in DOH warehouses, and bring to justice those responsible.
We demand that the government of the Philippines directly allocate adequate funding and resources for health services, especially at the grassroots, through:
● increasing the budget for government health services and programs, health facilities, and hospitals and appropriating at least 5% of gross domestic product towards health;
● strengthening of local government health institutions and promotion of public health and primary care;
● adequate positions and compensation for health personnel: increased entry-level salaries of health workers; ending the contractualization of health workers; and ensuring 1 nurse and midwife per barangay, at least 2.5 primary health care workers per 1,000 population, and at least 2 public health doctors per municipality; and
● free health services and medicines in all public health facilities, starting at the barangay level.
Corruption transcends a mere governance challenge–it functions as a full-blown human rights crisis. Thus, this systemic problem demands a systemic solution that is consistent with human rights obligations and addresses all elements that undermine justice.
We call on the people to stand their ground and unite their voices—to transform outrage into unwavering resolve. Only when we stand together, indivisible, can we finally dismantle the systemic structures that undermine our fundamental freedoms and realize a future where health is treated as a right, not a privilege. # #
