Dancing health exec brings House (tensions) down

MANILA, Philippines–The atmosphere was taut; the debate was turning ugly; the lawmakers were at each other’s throats.

Then Health Undersecretary Eric Tayag broke into a dance, instantly dissipating the tension that marred the congressional hearing Thursday on the proposed budget of the Department of Health (DOH).

A highly charged debate in the House of Representatives on the proposed budget of the health department took a turn for the surreal after Tayag, along with other health officials, got on his feet to do his famous dance moves on the congressional floor.

Tayag, known for his penchant for dance routines as part of his agency’s advocacies, stood up and led other DOH officials to a dance—sans music—that lasted about 10 seconds.

That was all it took to relax tensions and reduce everyone to giggles.

But Tayag did not do it voluntarily, as he was actually requested to do so by the committee.

It all started when Alliance of Concerned Teachers Representative Antonio Tinio began interrogating Health Secretary Enrique Ona on statements made by his undersecretary, Janette Garin, in confidence about the DOH’s medical assistance program.

Tinio, who earlier exposed a taped recording of Garin’s statements about lawmakers retaining control of the health package, questioned Ona about a P3.1-billion item for “assistance to indigent patients” in the DOH’s current budget.

Control of health package

“Does the DOH follow the Supreme Court decision [striking down the Priority Development Assistance Fund, or PDAF] that there shall be no more intervention of congressmen in providing medical services to the poor?” he asked the secretary.

“Yes, anybody can go to a hospital and ask that hospital for help,” Ona replied.

“No more intervention from congressmen?” Tinio asked.

“No more,” said the Cabinet member.

Garin’s previous comments

Then the congressman confronted Ona about Garin’s comments made in executive session last year that Tinio described to be the reverse of what her superior was saying.

Tinio quoted Garin as having said this:

“With regard to those who are indigent patients who can access the medical assistance program (MAP) fund, so the qualifications will be recommendations from MAP officials. You are the MAP officials, congressmen or their designated personnel.”

“Finally, very graphically, [she said that] ‘if I’m the patient, I go to congressman. Congressman, I need help. Immediately her office will text the officer in charge and give a guarantee letter that says help came from the congressman …. In the guarantee, there is no mention of the DOH,’” Tinio said.

He asked Ona why Garin was saying something completely different.

To which the secretary replied: “That was just part of our discussion before. What is final is what I’m saying to you now.”

Ona then presented Garin before the body to explain her previous statements.

Garin told the committee that there was confusion at the time as the DOH was still in “transition.

“That’s why we said it would be ‘case [by] case basis.’ We will prioritize those” patients recommended by lawmakers, she said, as the department did not have enough absorptive capacity to make use of the fund.

Then Garin dropped a bombshell. “We were made to believe that the fund came from PDAF. But when we went to the DBM (Department of Budget and Management), we were told it came from sin taxes.”

“That prompted us to change our guidelines,” she said.

But Tinio said that was not true, as he clearly remembered that the P24.5-billion PDAF that was supposed to go to legislators had been split between a select group of agencies in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision declaring the PDAF unconstitutional.

The DOH, he said, received P3.1 billion from the broken-down PDAF.

“Nowhere is the sin tax mentioned in the special provision on assistance to indigent patients,” said the lawmaker.

“If this is true, then it might mean a bigger problem for the DOH as “apparently the revenue from sin tax is now pork barrel,” he said.

But Ona argued that any increase of budget of DOH from 2013 to 2014 “could be attributed to the sin tax.”

Harsh exchange

At this point, Tinio was prevailed upon by other committee members to wind up his questioning, as he had taken up too much time.

But he had a parting shot to Ona: “You are making a fool of the public.”

The official shot back: “I am not fooling the public. Take it back.”