As Vico Sotto promised, Pasig hikes 2020 health budget to P2.5B

MANILA, Philippines — Pasig City has increased its health budget for next year by 42 percent compared to 2019, giving Mayor Vico Sotto the green light to implement sweeping healthcare reforms which were the cornerstone of his campaign.

Health services made up 21 percent of the 2020 budget ordinance unanimously passed by the city council last week—the second largest share after general public services—with an allocation of P2.5 billion compared to P1.7 billion the year before.

“I [had said] during the campaign that if I [were to win], I would allot P2.4 billion toward healthcare,” Sotto said on Twitter. “The trolls said I was a fool, that I didn’t know what I was talking about.”

“But look at where we are now: With a 2020 healthcare budget of P2,548,659,185 and part of that will go toward shoring up our systems,” he added.

Sotto said the additional funds would also go into hiring 300 new healthcare professionals, bolstering barangay health centers to meet international standards and tripling the spending for essential medicines, among others.

10 percent for education

The approved 2020 budget included 10 percent or P1.2 billion for education, 12 percent (P1.4 billion) for economic services and 4 percent (P480 million) for social services.

When Sotto campaigned for the mayoralty earlier this year, he repeatedly hammered the abysmal state of healthcare in the city under the leadership of then Mayor Robert Eusebio.

Even as he floated a long list of policy priorities, healthcare remained the focal point of his bid for office.