Cagayan De Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez (File photo by MARIANNE BERMUDEZ / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez has urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Congress, and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to restore the P3.3 billion that was cut from the proposed 2023 budgets of the University of the Philippines (UP) System and the Philippine General Hospital (PGH).
“We should be increasing the budgetary allocations of state universities and colleges, which are the poor student’s schools of choice, and government hospitals, which are the pauper’s go-to health facilities, instead of reducing their funds,” Rodriguez said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to him, the DBM could restore the slashed amount by sending a budget erratum or errata to the House of Representatives.
“They did that in the past. It is they who could easily make the necessary adjustments,” Rodriguez said.
Based on the P5.268-trillion proposed national budget for 2023 submitted to the lower chamber, UP will get P23.1 billion, P2.5 billion less than its current P25.6-billion budget.
On the other hand, PGH’s proposed funding for 2023 is P5.412 billion, down from this year’s P6.302 billion or a reduction of P893 million.
Preferred by indigents
Rodriguez cautioned the government against “sending the wrong message if it insists on cutting funding for the UP System and PGH.”
He said UP and other state universities and colleges were preferred by indigent students because tuition was free, while government hospitals like PGH use their share of the medical assistance fund allocation from the national budget to treat poor patients.
For House appropriations vice chair Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo, the reduced allocations for the UP System and PGH could still be remedied during House budget deliberations.
She told reporters that there were many congressmen and senators “who always want to help the PGH” in terms of getting higher funding.
“The PGH is always one of the recipients of amendments (to its budget) that happens almost every year. So if the funding is low, let us not be too concerned because this can still be remedied. Again, that’s precisely the purpose of the budget briefings and plenary debates,” Quimbo said.
“If House members and senators would find it meritorious to amend the proposed budget, of course we will do that. The PGH is very important, not only is it a very good hospital in Metro Manila servicing many catchment areas … At the same time, it is very important because it is a premier teaching hospital,” she added.
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UP system faces P2.5-B cut in proposed 2023 budget; P893-M slashed from PGH