DOH budget victim of political horse-trading – HEAD

Billions of pesos moved around to give politicians more control

By Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD)
February 1, 2016

QUEZON CITY – “The one billion pesos slashed from the item of ‘Family Health and Responsible Parenting’ of the 2016 budget of the Department of Health is only the tip of the iceberg,” according to Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD).

Based on comparisons of the proposed and approved budget, enormous amounts were moved around for political considerations rather than for health purposes.

“Under the Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP), more than 7.8 billion pesos were removed from funds for Barangay Health Stations,” said Dr. Joseph Carabeo, HEAD secretary-general. “The money would have improved the state of health stations located at the grassroots level.”

Instead, more than 2.9 billion pesos were added to the budget of Rural Health Units and 3.3 billion pesos were added for Public/Local-Government Unit (LGU) Hospitals. This puts the money under stronger control of local chief executives, particularly the mayors and governors.

“In the context of the coming elections, such spurious movements of money should be scrutinized, especially when the presidential candidate of the ruling party was also the former Department of Interior and Local Government secretary.” Carabeo said.

“We still remember our experience after Typhoon Yolanda, when the DILG secretary played favorites in the release of badly needed assistance.”

HEAD also noted that more than 471 million pesos of HFEP funds were added to the budget of “other health facilities”, which, upon closer inspection, covers only the National Capital Region, specifically the DOH Central Office.

“Given the DOH’s problems in utilizing its budget efficiently, what will prevent the Aquino government from simply declaring these funds as ‘savings’ and used elsewhere, as we have seen in the past?” Carabeo asked.