DOH may tap extra funds of DPWH, DILG
Credit to Author: acerojano| Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 11:52:16 +0000
The Department of Health (DOH) may restore the P24 billion it lost for equipment and salaries of personnel for some 900 newly built health facilities, and the completion of more than 400 health centers with funds coming from the extra budgets of two other departments, according to Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon.
Drilon said there was more than sufficient fiscal space to support the DOH budget for this year and restore the P16.8 billion from the health facilities enhancement program and the P7.4 billion from the human resources for health component.
The funds could come from the P75 billion added to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) budget and the P27.7 billion to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) budget in the National Expenditure Program, he said during budget interpellation in the Senate on Tuesday.
“These two agencies were beneficiaries of over P102 billion in allocation which they do not know where to spend because they did not submit projects for these allocations,” he said.
Both Public Works Secretary Mark Villar and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año told the senators that they had no knowledge of the additional fund allocations in the proposed national budget for 2019 as these did not come from their departments’ budget proposals, according to Drilon.
“On record, they said ‘they do not mind if these amounts are removed from [their] budgets,’” the Senate minority leader said.
‘First time’
Drilon said he had attended some 20 budget deliberations through the years, and that this was the first time he heard agency heads say they did not know about projects added to their proposed budgets.
The budget sponsor, Sen. JV Ejercito, agreed to Drilon’s suggestion.
“We can make sacrifices for other agencies, but not for health,” Ejercito said. Without the restoration of the P24.2 billion, the health centers would become “white elephants,” he noted.
Ejercito said the fund restoration would pave the way for the proper implementation of the anticipated universal health law.
Lost project funds
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto cited the need to look at the DPWH or DILG projects that would lose funding if the additions to their proposed budgets would be realigned to the DOH.
There could be valid projects funded by these additions, those that could create new jobs, Recto said.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III expressed hopes that the final DOH budget would include the restored funding. He said the P24.2 billion would be enough to allow the department to catch up with its backlog in the construction of health facilities.
While the DOH would not construct new health facilities this year, Duque said “the focus would be on completing the buildings or infrastructure programs that have been started a few years back.”