PASAY CITY—The Senate Committee on Health and Demography hit the Department of Health (DOH) with hard questions on May 11, exposing a massive disconnect between official reports and the actual state of local clinics. 

Senate Deputy Majority Leader Risa Hontiveros flagged the Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) for listing projects as "completed" even when citizens find them shuttered, understaffed, or filled with unused, stockpiled medical equipment. 

Lawmakers demanded to know why billions in taxpayer funds have been poured into facilities that remain non-operational or abandoned.

Senator Hontiveros traced these systemic failures to a toxic mix of weak monitoring, contractor negligence, and political favoritism. 

She warned that the DOH’s procurement process is being undermined by "palakasan" or political interference, which bypasses technical vetting to favor certain regions or contractors. 

“Hindi katanggap-tanggap ang lahat ng ito. Hindi ito dapat maging normal lalo na kung bilyong-bilyong piso ng taong bayan ang pinag-uusapan,”  Senator Hontiveros stated, emphasizing that the public cannot normalize the waste of billions of pesos while patients are turned away from empty health centers.

Compounding the frustration, Senator JV Ejercito stressed that these delays are actively sabotaging the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law. 

As a primary author of the landmark 2019 measure, Ejercito argued that UHC cannot succeed if the government continues to fund "antiquated" or unfinished infrastructure. 

“We want to find out what is causing the delay… These health facilities cannot wait any longer kasi kailangan ng tao ’yan. For us to be proud of the Universal Health Care law, our health facilities have to be at par as well. Hindi na puwede yung dating makaluma,” Senator Ejercito said. 

He called for an immediate investigation into why projects receiving hundreds of millions in funding are still stalling, asserting that Filipinos deserve modern, functional facilities that are "at par" with international standards.

‍