MANILA – Next year’s proposed P4.5-trillion national budget is not responsive to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation of the country, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon claimed.
The Ilonggo senator said it was surprising that the budget for the Department of Health (DOH) decreased by P131 billion while the budget for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. remained at P71 billion.
“Mukhang walang pandemic ngayon. ‘Yung proposed 2021 national budget ay hindi tumutugon sa pandemic,” Drilon said in an interview with DZBB over the weekend.
“Kailangan natin ng budget sa health dahil ang problema ngayon ay pandemic. Kung walang tiwala ang taumbayan na may kakayahan ang pamahalaan na harapin ang pandemic, hindi babalik sa dating sigla ang ekonomiya,” he added. “Kaya dapat buhusan natin ng pondo ang health sector.”
The opposition senator added that he will push for the realignment of some allocations to fund cash subsidies for COVID-hit families under the Social Amelioration Program.
The P19.1 billion budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict as well as intelligence and confidential funds could be realigned to health and cash subsidies, he said.
Drilon also pinpointed the supposed “lump sum” allocations under the Department of Public Works and Highways could be used as source for budget augmentations for the DOH and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
“‘Yan pa lang sa anti-insurgency fund aabot sa P19 billion, pwedeng i-realign iyan. ‘Yung confidential and intelligence fund sa buong pamahalaan na aabot sa P9 billion, pwede nating tingnan. Maraming lump-sum appropriation na pwedeng diyan manggaling ‘yung pondo,” he added./PN
