Senate to raise PGH budget

Philippine General Hospital (PGH). (Photo from the PGH Facebook page)

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate will augment the budget of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), whose funding was slashed by P893 million in the government’s proposed spending program for 2023 despite the continuing pandemic, Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara said on Sunday.

Angara, chair of the Senate finance committee, said the chamber would start the Development Budget Coordination Committee hearings and the deliberations on the proposed P5.3-trillion National Expenditure Program this week.

He said they would try to conclude the committee hearings in October and pass the expenditure bill in late November in time for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s signing of his administration’s first national budget before the year ends.

“We hope to continue strengthening the health sector and health system, particularly PGH,” Angara said, noting that lawmakers had been improving the proposed funding of the executive branch for the state-owned hospital.

“In recent years Congress has augmented its budget. I won’t be surprised if we do it again,” he told the Inquirer when asked if senators would restore the PGH’s budget cut.

Regarded as the country’s premier public hospital catering to indigent Filipinos, the PGH was allotted P5.412 billion for next year, P893 million lower than its current budget of P6.302 billion.

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