Don’t punish public for DOH’s slow spending, Drilon tells DBM

Senator Franklin Drilon. INQUIRER file photo / EDWIN BACASMAS

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) should not punish the public for the supposed slow utilization of the Department of Health (DOH) budget in the previous years, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said Thursday.

Drilon issued the statement as DBM Secretary Benjamin Diokno stood pat on his department’s cuts in the DOH’s budget for the construction of new health centers and purchase of medical equipment under the Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP), and Health Human Resources Deployment (HHRD).

The 2019 budget for HHRD was reduced to P1.2 billion from P9.6 billion, while the HFEP budget was slashed to just P50 million from P30 billion.

Drilon noted that Health Secretary Francisco Duque had denied being a slow spender.

But even assuming that DOH was indeed slow in utilizing its budget, the DBM should not punish the people and should just go after DOH officials, Drilon stressed.

“Why not discipline Secretary Duque and the responsible DOH officials for ineffective budget utilization, rather than sacrifice the welfare of the people, especially the poor, who need the services of the DOH?” he said.

Diokno also denied that the reduction in the HHRD budget could displace some 15,000 health workers, a matter that Drilon had warned about.

But Drilon said it was Duque himself who said these 15,000 workers could lose their jobs because of the budget cut.

“If Sec. Diokno claims this is false, is he saying Sec. Duque is lying?” he said.

He earlier asked the DBM to restore the amounts cut from the DOH budget by issuing errata on the allocations for the HFEP and HHRD.

Issuing errata was better than the Senate realigning funds for these programs as it would ensure that the restored amounts would not be vetoed by the President, Drilon said in an earlier hearing. /kga