Plunder, technical malversation complaint filed at Ombudsman vs ExSec Recto over P167B PhilHealth, PDIC fund sweep

₱60 billion in PhilHealth reserves and ₱107 billion in Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation funds, swept into the National Treasury in 2025 under a special provision of the 2024 General Appropriations Act, are the subject of a plunder and technical malversation complaint filed at the Office of the Ombudsman on Monday, May 25, 2026. Health reform advocate Dr. Tony Leachon, a former Department of Health adviser, filed the complaint. It names Executive Secretary Ralph Recto, acting Finance Secretary Frederick Go, Health Secretary and PhilHealth Board chair Ted Herbosa, former acting Budget Secretary Rolando Toledo, PhilHealth president and chief executive Dr. Edwin Mercado, former PhilHealth president Emmanuel Ledesma Jr., PDIC president Roberto Tan, and other PDIC directors. The complaint cites plunder under Republic Act 7080, technical malversation under the Revised Penal Code, and violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. The complaint argues the sweep violated the Universal Health Care Act and the Sin Tax Law, both of which earmark PhilHealth funds for healthcare delivery and indigent patient coverage. In December 2025, the Supreme Court ruled the special provision authorizing the transfer was unconstitutional and ordered the ₱60 billion returned to PhilHealth through the 2026 national budget. Recto called the complaint "libelous" and a "nuisance" filing. He said in a May 25 statement that "his claim that I have financially benefited from said PhilHealth funds is an outright falsehood" and that "an elementary understanding of public expenditure would lead one to conclude that I was not and never in a position to have been able to touch a single centavo of it." He said the case "should not be tossed aside gently" and "should be thrown out with great force." Recto's defense also cites an opinion attributed to Associate Justice Rodil Zalameda characterizing the transfer as ministerial.