Camarines Sur LRay Villafuerte is pushing a sweeping reform of a nearly two-decade-old priority program of the Department of Health (DOH) that received almost ₱30 billion this year for building or improving health facilities, but which has, at this point, left this Department stuck with 300 idle or non-operational health centers out of almost 900 built thus far across the country.
This developed as Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa, in a recent report to the ad hoc fact-finding Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), revealed that of the 878 super health centers funded by the Department of Health (DOH) under its Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP), only 196 are “ready for occupancy,” as 17 are partially operational, 300 are inoperable and 365 are still under construction.
According to previous reports, about P28 billion was allotted for the HFEP under the annual national budget in 2025 alone, for funding facilities like super health centers, which are bigger and better equipped than regular health centers, but offering less complex services than hospitals.
“For the DOH to make full and immediate use of the non-operational facilities, Secretary Ted (Herbosa) should consider reforming the HFEP by: (1) allowing financially-capable LGUs (local government units), including provincial governments, to immediately take over the operation of the otherwise idle super health centers; (2) limiting HFEP beneficiaries only to municipalities that actually have the resources to hire and maintain health professionals and administrative personnel to run these facilities; and (3) invest in the medical equipment and other facilities needed by these super health centers,” Villafuerte said.
“The current HFEP policy to fund the construction of super health centers even in municipalities where the LGUs don’t have the wherewithal to either pay for the doctors, nurses and administrative staff or procure and maintain the medical equipment needed for these mini-hospitals to deliver healthcare to the people does not make sense, judging from this huge number of supposedly LGU-run but unused facilities,” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte said, “The DOH should not invest in super health centers willy-nilly in municipalities regardless of these LGUs’ financial status, as it will never stop being at risk of squandering public funds on health centers that can end up idle or useless because the LGU-beneficiaries have no capability to keep them up and running.”
A former Deputy Speaker for Finance and three-term congressman, Villafuerte is president of the National Unity Party (NUP) and senior vice chairman (for South Luzon) of the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP).
In a press conference after a DOH interagency coordination meeting with the ICC last Oct. 17, Herbosa told reporters that, “What we see as obstacles to operations are sometimes there’s no power and no water. In our arrangement, it is the LGU that will make sure that it is connected to the electricals, that it’s connected to water lines.”
Herbosa said he has already instructed DOH regional directors to inspect these 300 non-operational health centers, about 170 of which are in Luzon and the rest in the Visayas and Mindanao.
“Managing health facilities is costly, and not every municipality has the resources to run one.”
Started in 2007, the HFEP has a separate budget in the annual General Appropriations Act (GAA), with its funds earmarked for constructing, upgrading and equipping such facilities as Rural Health Units (RHUs), Barangay Health Stations (BHS) and super health centers, which are larger than RHUs.
These centers were reportedly built by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) because of a GAA provision requiring this Department to handle the construction of health facilities costing over P5 million and that are not directly under DOH control.
Under the Memorandums of Agreement (MOAs) between the DOH and the beneficiary-LGUs, the latter are supposed to be responsible for providing the complete utilities in these HFEP-funded health centers and hiring medical and administrative staff.
Villafuerte said that, “Building health facilities in municipalities is good as it supports President Marcos’ goal to provide Filipinos, especially those in faraway areas, with easy access to outpatient services. However, reality bites; managing health facilities is costly, and not every municipality has the resources to run one.”
The governor noted that the HFEP has turned out to be such a fiasco, so much so that no less than Herbosa himself had, in a recent House committee deliberation on the DOH’s proposed budget for 2026, described this infra dilemma as the “flood control version” of his Department.
Herbosa was apparently referring to the deepening controversy on the waste of massive infrastructure funds in certain DPWH flood control projects.
“The current HFEP policy to fund the construction of super health centers even in municipalities where the LGUs don’t have the wherewithal to either pay for the doctors, nurses and administrative staff or procure and maintain the medical equipment needed for these mini-hospitals to deliver healthcare to the people does not make sense, judging from this huge number of supposedly LGU-run but unused facilities.”
Villafuerte noted that he had sought support from the DOH for the construction of HFEP health centers in four CamSur municipalities that the provincial LGU was willing to operate itself by hiring its own doctors, nurses and administrative staff.
However, the DOH rejected his request on the ground that HFEP program-beneficiaries are limited to municipal LGUs and excludes provincial governments.
The ideal arrangement, he said, is for the DOH to select LGUs capable of running the super health centers and for this Department to split with the LGU-beneficiaries the cost of operating them.
With the recent realignment of GAA funds originally intended for the DPWH’s flood control projects, Villafuerte said a portion of such DPWH budget cuts could be used to increase the HFEP outlay and use such extra outlay for funding the purchase of equipment for the LGU-run super health centers
“If a HFEP-beneficiary local government spends, say, P20 million on hiring health professionals plus the other people needed to run the health facility, the DOH should in turn spend a counterpart P20 million on the acquisition of medical equipment and other facilities for these centers,” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte first raised concerns over the implementation of the HFEP in 2023 when he was still Camarines Sur representative and majority leader of the Commission on Appointments (CA).
During the CA hearing on Herbosa’s appointment as DOH Secretary in 2023, Villafuerte proposed a higher budgetary support for the HFEP to prevent existing and future super health centers from becoming empty, grass-filled structures that sometimes end up being used only for tong-its or card games and drinking sessions.
He suggested to Herbosa during a CA hearing that the annual outlay for HFEP needs a sizable bump so LGUs that run super health centers are assured of sufficient funds to acquire top-grade medical equipment and pay for the salaries of doctors, nurses and other staff in these souped-up clinics.
“Mr. Secretary, I was governor for 9 years, at hirap na hirap po kami magpatakbo ng mga government hospitals. Noong na-devolve yan sa mga LGUs, pinasa, nag-deteriorate po ang healthcare system because wala naman talagang pera ang LGUs,” Villafuerte said in the CA hearing in 2023. “The mayors, the governors, LGUs want to put up hospitals in the hope that they can help improve our public healthcare system. However, running a hospital is costly.”
He said that super health centers were built in the past, a number of which were completed and others were not. “Ang iba natapos pero up to now ay tinutubuan na ng talahib. At kung meron man natapos, yun na nga, ginagawang inuman at nagto-tong-its lang po ang mga barangay officials dahil walang equipment.”
