Zero budget for health facilities anti-poor – JV Ejercito

MANILA, Philippines — The zero allocation given to the Department of Health (DOH) for the improvement of health facilities in the country this year would endanger the lives of poor Filipinos seeking treatment for serious ailments, Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito said yesterday.

Ejercito, chairman of the Senate committee on health, sought the restoration of P30 billion for the DOH’s Health Facilities Enhancement Program in the proposed P3.757 trillion national budget for this year, describing the zero allocation for the HFEP as “anti-poor and a great disservice to the people.”

“This is a great disservice to the people. Why should we penalize the people? If there’s a problem in the implementation (of the HFEP), if the absorptive capacity (of the DOH) is poor, it must not be the people who should suffer,” Ejercito told reporters during a visit to a public hospital in Pampanga last week.

The senator was referring to Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno’s justification in slashing the P30 billion budget programmed for 2019 to finish the upgrade of health facilities that are 70 to 80 done under the HFEP.

The proposed budget for 2019 for the DOH is P74.1 billion, which is 36 billion lower than the 2018 budget of P109.8 billion. 

Funding for the HFEP was also drastically reduced from P30.26 billion this year to just P50 million in 2019. The program seeks to put up health stations in various communities of the country.

 He said he saw so many patients packed in corridors in public hospitals and health centers that lack many basic medical equipment during his visits in the provinces during the holidays. 

The senator said he was willing to settle for the restoration of P16 billion or about half originally allocated for the HFEP so the facilities whose construction have already begun be finished and be given the much-needed equipment.

Ejercito also expressed fears that the implementation of the Universal Health Care measure, which he authored and sponsored and is now pending the signature of President Duterte for it to become a law, would be derailed if the HFEP would be not implemented. 

Once the Universal Health Care Bill becomes a law, he expects a surge in visits to public health facilities. The bill seeks to cover all Filipinos with health insurance.