MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) is seeking a P242.22 billion budget for next year—slightly higher than the funds allocated for the agency in 2021.
Under the proposed DOH budget presented before the House of Representatives Committee on Health, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that of the proposed P242.22 billion budget, P157.03 billion will go to programs of the DOH-Office of the Secretary while P510 million will go to its attached agencies such as the National Nutrition Council and the Philippine National AIDS Council.
Attached corporations to the DOH such as the Lung Center of the Philippines, the National Kidney Transplant Institute, the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, the Philippine Heart Center, and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will get P75.96 billion under the proposed budget.
The increase in the proposed DOH budget, Duque said, was due to several factors such as the allocations for the Health Facilities Enhancement Program which increased from P7.8 billion in 2021 to P19.5 billion in 2022.
Funds for the COVID-19 Laboratory Network funding also increased from P124 million to P5.1 billion in 2022 while the budget for the Procurement and Supply Chain Service also rose from P486 million this year to P1.9 billion next year, said Duque.
“This increase in fiscal space will enable us to address the health systems gaps in the national and regional levels and help us capacitate our LGUs to do the same in the hopes of not only effectively managing current and future pandemics, but also in keeping with our UHC (universal healthcare) aspirations,” Duque said.