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Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Batasan Hills, Quezon City 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session 
HOUSE BILL No. _____ 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Introduced by  
ACT Teachers Party-List Rep. FRANCE L. CASTRO,  
GABRIELA Women’s Party Rep. ARLENE D. BROSAS,  
and KABATAAN Party-List Rep. RAOUL DANNIEL A. MANUEL 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
AN ACT 
PROHIBITING THE PRIVATIZATION AND CORPORATIZATION OF 
PUBLIC HOSPITALS, PUBLIC HEALTH FACILITIES AND PUBLIC 
HEALTH SERVICES, AND PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS 
THEREOF 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
This Bill seeks to protect the right to health of the Filipino people, the poor 
especially, by maintaining and upholding the public character of government hospitals, 
and by prohibiting any form of privatization of public hospitals, public health facilities 
and public health services. 
Article II, Section 15 of the 1987 Constitution mandates that “the State shall 
protect and promote the right to health of the people and instill health consciousness 
among them.”  Further, Section 11 of Article XIII Section 11 mandates that the “State 
shall adopt an integral and comprehensive approach to health development and shall 
endeavor to make essential goods, health and other social services available to all the 
people at affordable cost.” 
The right to health is also enshrined in the World Health Organization 
constitution and in various instruments of the United Nations. 
Yet, according to Asian Development Bank Country Partnership Strategy: 
Philippines 2011-2016, six out of ten Filipinos die without medical attention.  The 2017 
National Demographic and Health Survey showed that more than half of health care 
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costs are paid out-of-pocket.  Based on the 2022 data of the Philippine Statistics 
Authority, 44.7% of the total health expenditure were financed through household out-
of-pocket expense while 45.7% were financed through government schemes and 
compulsory contributory health care financing schemes. 
 
According to the Department of Health (DOH) in 2010, the poorest of the 
population are the main users of government health facilities.  But public hospitals and 
health facilities have suffered neglect due to the inadequacy of health budgets in terms 
of support for the expansion of their capacities and improvement of the quality of their 
services. 
 
To address this, the DOH implemented so-called health reforms, which include, 
among others, the provision of fiscal autonomy to government hospitals by allowing 
collection of socialized user fees for services and converting these hospitals into 
government corporations.  Upgrading of hospitals and health facilities was targeted 
through different mechanisms including the very anti-poor public-private partnership 
(PPP) and income retention.  These were consistently espoused in the Health Sector 
Reform Agenda (1999), Formula One for Health (2005), Kalusugan Pangkalahatan 
(2010), FOURmula One Plus for Health (2016), and the Philippine Development Plans 
of the every administration. 
 
Officials of the DOH claimed that such reforms do not constitute privatization.  
But the World Health Organization defines privatization in healthcare as “a process in 
which non-governmental actors become increasingly involved in the financing and/or 
provision of healthcare services.”1  Based on this definition, privatization includes the 
following: divestiture or outright sale of public sector assets in which the state divests 
itself of public assets to private owners; franchising or contracting out to private, for 
profit, or, not-for-profit providers; self-management, wherein providers are given 
autonomy to generate and spend resources; market liberalisation or deregulation to 
actively promote growth of the private health sector through various incentive 
mechanisms, and; withdrawal from state provision, wherein the private sector grows 
rapidly as a result of the failure on the part of the government to meet the healthcare 
demands of the people.2 
 
Instead of alleviating the burden of poor patients, the health reforms 
implemented by the DOH contributed to further inaccessibility of health services, as 
previously free services and supplies in public hospitals and facilities were subjected to 
“user fees.” Most poor patients who are not qualified under the National Household 
Targeting System as sponsored PhilHealth members could not afford the present 
standard fees in government hospitals.  However, the increasing cost of health services 
                                                             
1 Muschell, Jeff. “Technical Briefing Note: Privatization in Health.” World Health Organization, June 
1995. 
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/58523/WHO_TFHE_TBN_95.1.pdf?sequence=1&is
Allowed=y.  
2 ES Savas, “A taxonomy of privatization strategies,” Policy Studies Journal, 1989, as cited by 
Peedell 


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and non-availability of supplies, procedures and equipment in public hospitals greatly 
increase the out-of-pocket payments of the people—even those patients covered by 
PhilHealth—resulting in their further impoverishment. 
 
Cutbacks in the allotment for the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses 
for public hospitals further increase the cost of services and result in the unavailability 
of equipment and supplies.  Respirators in the emergency and intensive care units of 
most public hospitals, for instance, are provided by private companies and paid for by 
patients.  Equipment such as x-ray and other equipment regularly breakdown thereby 
driving patients to private diagnostic facilities. 
 
The increasing fees in public hospitals are already difficult to bear for families 
who earn a minimum daily wage of ₱533-570 in the National Capital Region, but more 
so for those outside the NCR and those who have no regular source of income. 
 
Meanwhile, corporatized hospitals, or government-owned and -controlled 
corporation (GOCC) hospitals, source the funds for maintenance and other operating 
expenses, capital outlay and personal services from their corporate budget/income. 
Service patients in these GOCC hospitals are required to pay for everything except for 
doctors’ fees.  As a result, in 2011, for example, thousands of patients in the Philippine 
Heart Center were waitlisted for operations until they were able to raise the cost of 
patients’ share ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousand pesos.  Also, in 
the same year, it was reported that patients who were not able to pay their bills at the 
Philippine Children’s Medical Center were made to surrender their valuables as 
collateral—“pawnshop style”—before they were allowed to go home.  Such practice of 
“collateral” for services was stopped only after such were exposed by patients. 
 
Hospital directors of GOCC hospitals have, for several years during budget 
deliberations, been practically pleading for increased government allotment to better 
serve the patients especially the indigents.  Despite these reports, the persistent attempts 
to privatize public hospitals nationwide have always been the government’s primary 
response. 
 
On the other hand, health workers, patients, and health advocates opposing the 
privatization of the National Center for Mental Health, Fabella Hospital, and other 
hospitals also raise concerns on the displacement of indigent patients comprising the 
large majority of those who avail of the services given by these public hospitals. 
 
Undoubtedly, when public hospitals are opened to private investors, in whatever 
degree or form, the orientation of health care shifts from service to income and profit.  
When public hospitals are privatized, the general public, thus, suffers. 
 
Public hospitals and public health facilities were built to serve the public.  
People’s taxes should be returned to the people in terms of adequate and free social 
services including health services especially for poor patients.  Adequate and 
sustainable budgets should be allotted to public hospitals and public health facilities—


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to fully cover the expenses for maintenance and other operating expenses, personal 
services and capital outlay—so that they can fulfill their mandate of serving the public, 
especially the poor. 
 
Health care must be made accessible, affordable, and appropriate to the needs of 
the people.  Public hospitals, as part of the public health care delivery system, must be 
fully developed and strengthened by the government, not privatized. 
 
This Bill was first filed during the 17th Congress by Bayan Muna Party-List Rep. 
Carlos Zarate, ACT Teachers Party-List Reps. Antonio Tinio and France Castro, 
Gabriela Women’s Party Reps. Emmi de Jesus and Arlene Brosas, Anakpawis Party-
List Rep. Ariel Casilao, and Kabataan Party-List Rep. Sarah Elago as House Bill 2475.  
It was approved on Third Reading as HB 7437 by the House of Representatives and 
was hailed as a major step to address the inaccessibility and inequity in health care made 
worse by privatization of public health services. However, the measure, refiled during 
the 18th Congress as HB 250, remained pending before the House Committee on Health. 
 
As legislators, we are duty-bound to uphold the health and well-being of the 
people.  In order to have a comprehensive and integrated health care delivery system as 
mandated by the Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, the urgent approval of 
this Bill is earnestly recommended. 
 
 
 
________________________________ 
Rep. FRANCE L. CASTRO 
ACT Teachers Party-List 
 
 
 
 
________________________________ 
Rep. ARLENE D. BROSAS 
GABRIELA Women’s Party 
 
 
________________________________ 
Rep. RAOUL DANNIEL A. MANUEL 
KABATAAN Party-List 


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Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Batasan Hills, Quezon City 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session 
HOUSE BILL No. _____ 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Introduced by  
ACT Teachers Party-List Rep. FRANCE L. CASTRO,  
GABRIELA Women’s Party Rep. ARLENE D. BROSAS,  
and KABATAAN Party-List Rep. RAOUL DANNIEL A. MANUEL 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
AN ACT 
PROHIBITING THE PRIVATIZATION AND CORPORATIZATION OF 
PUBLIC HOSPITALS, PUBLIC HEALTH FACILITIES AND PUBLIC 
HEALTH SERVICES, AND PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS 
THEREOF 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress 
assembled: 
SECTION 1. Title. – This Act shall be known as the “Anti-Privatization of Public 
Hospitals, Health Facilities and Health Services Act”. 
SEC. 2.  Declaration of Policy. – It is the declared policy of the State that it shall protect 
and promote the right to health of the people and instill health consciousness among 
them.  Further, the State shall endeavor to make essential goods, health and other 
services available to all the people at affordable cost. 
SEC. 3. Definition of terms. – For purposes of this Act, the following terms shall mean: 
a. Indigent/service/poor patients refer to those who have no source of income, or
whose family incomes are below the mandated minimum daily wage and/or
below the minimum monthly cost of living as set by appropriate government
agencies.
b. Privatization refers to the process in which non-governmental actors become
increasingly involved in the financing and the provision of health care services
which includes: outright sale; public-private partnership; corporatization;
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contracting out of equipment and services; joint venture; franchising; 
management control and/or corporatization;leasing; and user-charges. 
 
c. Public hospitals refer to all Department of Health-retained and national 
hospitals, and provincial and regional hospitals under the local government. 
 
d. Public health facilities refer to health centers, lying-in, and barangay health 
stations under the national or local government. 
 
e. Public health services refer to all diagnostic, laboratory, medical, surgical, and 
health-related services provided by public hospitals and public health facilities 
to indigent, service or poor patients. 
 
SEC. 4. Prohibition of Privatization of Public Hospitals, Public Health Facilities, and 
Public Health Services. – No public hospital, public health facility, and public health 
services shall be privatized.  Likewise, under no circumstance shall the Secretary of 
Health or any person, whether natural or juridical, initiate, cause, and approve the 
privatization of any public hospital, public health facility or public health services. 
 
SEC. 5. Bed allotment for indigent/service/poor patients in public hospitals. – At least 
90% of the total bed capacity of all public hospitals shall be allotted for 
indigent/service/poor patients, pursuant to Republic Act No. 1939, otherwise known as 
“An Act Prescribing the Appropriate Share of the National, Provincial, City and 
Municipal Governments in the Financial Contributions for the Operation and 
Maintenance of Free Beds in Government Hospitals and/or the Establishment of 
Additional Wards or Hospitals in the Philippines.” 
 
SEC. 6. Liability and Accountability. – Any person, whether natural or juridical, who 
initiates, causes or approves the privatization of any public hospital, public health 
facility or public health services shall be considered in violation of this Act. 
 
SEC. 7. Penalties. – Any person who violates any provisions of this Act shall be 
penalized accordingly: 
 
a. First Offense– A fine of not less than one hundred thousand pesos 
(P100,000.00) but not more than two hundred thousand pesos (P200,000) and 
suspension of one year to two years from public office; 
 
b. Second Offense- A fine of not less than two hundred thousand pesos 
(P200,000) but not more than five hundred thousand pesos (P500,000) and 
temporary disqualification from holding any public office of not less than 
three years but not more than six years; and 
 
c. Third Offense- A fine of not less than five hundred thousand pesos 
(P500,000) but not more than eight hundred thousand pesos (P800,000) and 


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removal from public office and perpetual disqualification from holding any 
public position or office. 
 
SEC. 8. Implementing Rules and Regulations. – The Secretary of the Department of 
Health shall promulgate the rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions 
of this Act within ninety (90) days from its effectivity. 
 
SEC. 9. Separability Clause. – If any provisions of this Act is declared invalid or 
unconstitutional, other provisions hereof which are not affected thereby shall continue 
to be in full force and effect.  
 
SEC. 10. Repealing Clause. – All provisions of laws, orders, decrees, including rules 
and regulations inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.  
 
SEC. 11. Effectivity Clause. – This Act shall take effect (15) days following its 
publication in the Official Gazette or in any newspaper of national circulation.  
 
 
Approved,