‘Tinitipid?’: 2 senators hit ‘anemic’ DOH budget for 2021

This photo shows the combination photos of Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Senator Risa Hontiveros. PRIB

MANILA, Philippines — At least two senators have questioned the “anemic” 2021 budget allocation for the Department of Health (DOH), with one lawmaker saying the amount “does not adequately address the protection of public health” in the wake of the pandemic.

The proposed budget for the DOH ranks only fifth in the budget pie under the 2021 National Expenditure Program, Senator Risa Hontiveros pointed out during the Senate’s budget deliberations on Wednesday.

“In the face of the largest health crisis of our time, tila anemic ang budget natin para sa kalusugan,” she said.

According to Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado, the DOH budget for next year has been increased to P131.72 billion from P104.49 billion in 2020.

But Hontiveros said DOH’s proposed budget is lower than that of the Department of Interior and Local Government as well as the Department of National Defense.

“Why is it that health is only fifth in the allocations for 2021? Tinitipid po ba natin ang ating health sector sa tulong at suporta?” she asked.

“Our health budget cannot be 5th in priority amidst a pandemic. Kulang ang budget natin para sa surveillance ng COVID-19,” she further added.

Reduced budget?

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon pointed out that the proposed budget for DOH has actually been reduced considering the emergency funding given this year in light of the pandemic.

The adjusted budget of DOH in 2020 stands at P153.1 billion, Avisado confirmed upon the questioning of Drilon.

“From the original budget, and given that we needed to respond to the pandemic, the adjusted budget of the DOH stands at P153.1 billion, including the emergency releases to the DOH,” the budget secretary said.

Drilon said he sees “something wrong with this.”

“I question the reduction of the DOH budget from the present P151 billion versus P131 billion for 2021…We should recognize that our economic recovery depends on our ability to protect public health,” the senator said.

“We need to improve our testing, contract tracing, and our ability to treat. How can we achieve this if we reduced the budget of the DOH? Of course, there are issues on the capabilities of the secretary of health today but that is beside the point. As a policy, we should increase the allocation for the health sector,” he added.

Avisado explained that the national government “invested so much on capital consideration, like testing machines” this year.

“That’s why we have a very huge expenditure on this. Next year, what will be covered mostly are the consumables, the test kits,” he said.

“That is where we wanted to ensure that there will be more than enough consumables to be able to correspond to the capital investments that we had this year as well as the purchase of [personal protective equipment sets] and accompanying items relative to the protection the health and condition of our health care workers,” Avisado added.

KGA

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