Andaya: Nothing illegal in House move to itemize allocations under DOH budget

MANILA, Philippines — There is nothing unconstitutional, illegal or surprising in the House of Representative’s move to identify the items under the Department of Health’s (DOH) 2019 budget, House Appropriations committee chair Rolando Andaya Jr. maintained Wednesday.

“There is nothing illegal or surprising that happened because if it’s merely a lump-sum. How will we distribute this to different hospitals?” Andaya said in a press conference.

Andaya issued the remark after Senator Panfilo Lacson alleged that Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo realigned the P25-million budget from the DOH to benefit “favored” congressmen.

The P25 million supposedly earmarked for “favored congressmen” will be taken from the P15-billion lump-sum fund under the DOH’s Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP), the Senator said.

READ: Lacson: Arroyo realigns P25M budget to ‘favored’ solons

Andaya explained that when the bicameral conference committee approved the budget, there were no details provided on how the P15-billion lump-sum fund under the  HFEP will be distributed.

He added that it was only agreed upon recently that the share of the House is P4.5 billion, the Senate P2 billion and the DOH P8.5 billion.

“Kaya nga tinawagan natin yung mga miyembro ng House, the same way the Senate also asked their members kung saan ba natin ilalagay itong pondong ito,” Andaya said.

(That is why we asked the members of the House, the same way the Senate also asked their members, to discuss how the fund should be distributed.)

“‘Yun naman yung napagkasunduan, ‘yun ang ginawa namin… (That’s what we did) Nothing illegal, nothing unconstitutional, it’s all within the framework of the bicameral conference report signed by the members of both houses” he added.

Andaya also denied Lacson’s claim that Arroyo ordered the preparation of the DOH appropriations for HFEP worth P25 million “in individual allocations for her favored congressmen, including a P2.5 million allocation for the purchase of an ambulance.”

He said the members of the House used as guidelines the “menu of the DOH” to decide on the fund allocation and not the “House’s menu” or the “Speaker’s menu.”

“It is not the House’s menu or the Speaker’s menu; it is the menu or the program identification given to us by the DOH,” he added.

He further explained that the DOH’s menu provides that the funds be allocated to equipment, medical mobile transport, or the completion of repairs in the rehabilitation or the improvement of barangay health stations, rural health units, district hospitals, and national government hospitals.

The House Appropriations committee chair also maintained that the lower chamber of Congress is only “doing its job in trying to make health care accessible to everyone” when it itemized the appropriations of the DOH budget.

READ: Lacson: ‘House just itemizing the budget? My foot’

He explained that there was no budget allocated to districts for the HFEP in the past.

“Noong dumating yung DOH budget sa House, zero halos lahat ng mga distrito when it comes to health facilities enhancement program,” he said.

(When the DOH budget was submitted to the House, all districts has zero budget for the health facilities enhancement program.)

“We actually did our job in trying to make health care accessible to everyone,” Andaya added. /ee