A Supreme Court (SC) decision allowing the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to tax St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) has been assailed as detrimental to charity patients.

Rustico Jimenez, Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAP) president, said the decision could lead to the closure of charity wards in other foundation or training hospitals.

“It is not beneficial to poor patients,” he said.

Jimenez said training hospitals like SLMC should be exempted from income tax because their income usually goes to patients in charity wards.

“Private hospitals are not receiving subsidy from the government, but they are serving poor patients,” he said. “So tax amnesty is really a big help for us.” Jimenez said SLMC and other training hospitals like Cardinal Santos and Lourdes hospitals might not be able to continue their charity services which entails huge operational costs.

“For sure, this will set a bad precedent,” he said.

“Every time a related case is filed in the future, that ruling of SC will always be mentioned.” Jimenez said PHAP member-hospitals have decided to file an intervention with SC to express their concerns over the decision’s possible implications in other facilities.

“We are just waiting for the action of SLMC, but we intend to ‘intervene’ because we are worried about its impact on other hospitals,” he said.