Congress allots P620 million for cancer assistance fund

MANILA, Philippines — The bicameral conference committee from the Senate and House of Representatives has allotted about P620 million for the Department of Health (DOH)’s cancer assistance fund next year, where indigent patients can avail themselves of medicines and other treatment.

“This is only the first step. If we are to succeed in making cancer treatment more affordable, we will have to ensure the NICC law’s implementation is funded yearly until we create a fully working system,” Quezon City Rep. Alfred Vargas said.

NICC stands for National Integrated Cancer Control Act that President Duterte signed in 2019 as Republic Act 11215.

Vargas, vice chairman of the House appropriations committee, said the P620-million fund was included in the proposed P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021, which the Senate and House ratified last week.

“I am particularly grateful to Speaker Lord Allan Jay Velasco and House accounts panel chairman Paolo Duterte for their efforts in ensuring the effective implementation of the NICC law,” the senior administration lawmaker said.

Velasco and Duterte gave assurance the NICC law’s implementation will be funded in 2021. NICC remains unfunded after the Department of Budget and Management disapproved the DOH’s proposal to allocate P540 million for the cancer assistance fund.

Vargas, whose mother succumbed to cancer in 2014, is the principal author of the NICC law’s House version.

RA 11215 establishes an NICC program that will serve as the framework for all of the government’s cancer-related activities, with the goal of decreasing the overall mortality and impact of all adult and childhood cancer.

Speaker Velasco, for his part, lauded the inclusion of the funds for the government’s cancer control program in the final version of the national budget for 2021, saying this allocation would provide cancer patients better access to affordable health care services.

The Speaker also thanked the House contingent to the bicameral conference committee, led by House appropriations committee chairman and ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Eric Yap, for ensuring that the NICC is funded under the 2021 national budget.

Duterte, whose mother is a breast cancer survivor and now a breast cancer advocate, cited the need to “prioritize the needs of our fellow countrymen, specially those who don’t have enough income or capabilities to survive their illnesses.”

Based on the 2018 DOH data, there are around 110,000 new cases diagnosed annually and the death toll from cancer for both adults and children is about 66,000 Filipinos per year.

Velasco is confident that raising the budget for cancer assistance will reduce the mortality, especially for poor patients. He lamented that the high cost of cancer diagnosis and treatment could push even high-income families to sudden financial struggle.