{"id":888332,"date":"2026-01-27T23:20:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T05:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/top-5-public-health-issues-in-ph-in-2025\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T23:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T05:20:17","slug":"top-5-public-health-issues-in-ph-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/top-5-public-health-issues-in-ph-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 5 public health issues in PH in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In 2025, many government agencies faced public scrutiny due to discrepancies and issues.<\/p>\n

The Department of Health was not spared at it hurdled different challenges throughout the year, including major budget issues and public health concerns.<\/p>\n

Here are five of the biggest public health news that the Philippines faced in 2025:<\/p>\n

PhilHealth’s excess funds<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Other Stories<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2024, PhilHealth had been ordered to return P89.9 billion worth of excess funds back to the Philippine treasury.<\/p>\n

The return of the funding to the national treasury was ordered through a Department of Finance circular, and a transfer of P60 billion was successfully done until a temporary restraining order<\/a> (TRO) was issued in October 2024.<\/p>\n

In December 2025, the Supreme Court ordered the return<\/a> of the P60-billion funding back to PhilHealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cFilipinos deserve better. We deserve to dream, not of the day when we and our families can finally walk into the hospital without fearing financial ruin, but of the beautiful life that can still be led after healing,\u201d SC said in their decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court will not sit idly by, not when the people look and cry to us for help, not when the Constitution charges us to be the singular indomitable bastion of our people\u2019s rights. This Court will not be deaf to the pleas of our people. We will not be blind to their plight. And we certainly will not be callous to their agony,\u201d it later added.<\/p>\n

The decision was welcomed by lawmakers and the Health Department.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the year, when asked about the rest of the P89.9 billion in PhilHealth funds remitted to the national treasury,\u00a0Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said he had no idea where it went.<\/p>\n

He mentioned that a portion of the fund that was protected by the TRO had been used to settle arrears in the health emergency allowance, but that he did not know about the rest of the budget that was handed to the treasury.<\/p>\n

“I think that money could have gone, for example, to easing the burden and the cost, broadening the programs of PhilHealth for our people,\u201d said Representative Chel Diokno.<\/p>\n

Then Finance secretary Ralph Recto said the P60 billion fund went<\/a> to the following:<\/p>\n