Vergeire: Health workers’ benefits to suffer most from DOH budget cuts

DOH officer-in-charge Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health (DOH) is asking for more funding for healthcare workers’ benefits and allowances next year, citing it as the most affected program in its proposed budget for 2023.

DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire on Wednesday lamented the meager funds allocated to keep healthcare workers’ benefits up until next year.

Vergeire made the remark after Quezon Rep. Keith Micah Tan asked which DOH projects would be most affected by the cuts in its budget proposal.

READ: P296.3-B health budget for 2023: Higher but still ‘not enough’

“Meron po kaming listahan ng mga programa na nagkaroon po ng kakulangan dito po sa 2023 budget (We have a list of programs that received lacking funds in the 2023 budget). But primarily, what we are appealing to our committee on health and the members of the House of Representatives would be our insufficient budget that was provided for the healthcare workers’ benefits,” she said at the House of Representatives health committee meeting.

Vergeire later stressed: “Ito po iyong pinakamalaki na hindi po naibigay sa atin.”

(This is the biggest slice of the budget denied to us.)

READ: Health workers hit DOH over benefits

Additionally, Vergeire appealed to the House panel to restore the DOH budget for the cancer assistance fund. However, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) removed the fund completely from DOH’s proposed budget for 2023, according to her.

“Previously, we had a line item for the cancer assistance fund at P500 million. We are just set to implement this and now, it was removed from the line item. So we, therefore, appeal to our House of Representative members, the committee on health, if this can be returned because this is part of the law,” the DOH official added.

Vergeire also pointed out another shortfall in the budget allocated for the Epidemiology and Surveillance Program of the DOH.

“These would be the important things that we are requesting from the good congressmen and women here, especially for our healthcare workers’ budget, which totals to around P76 billion for the year 2023 requirement. And also we have arrears of a total of P64 billion, and this is the money that we need so we can fulfill our commitment to our healthcare workers,” she further explained.

With a budget of P296.3 billion, the country’s health sector is third among the sectors that received the highest funds in the 2023 budget proposal of the DBM. However, it lags behind the education sector, which was given P852.8 billion, and the infrastructure sector, with P718.4 billion.

READ: Lawmaker: Marcos admin’s proposed 2023 budget shows misplaced priorities

The DBM earlier stressed that the proposed DOH budget is 10.4 percent higher than for 2022  – P29 billion of this was earmarked for the procurement of medicines and vaccines, while P19 billion will be used for the salary and benefits of healthcare workers.

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