MANILA – The disagreement between Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Senator Bong Go over the funding source for local hospital bills finally ended with the two senators agreeing to fund the bills under the national budget for 2022.
During Wednesday’s session, Drilon proposed amendments to nine bills seeking to expand different local hospitals, identifying a funding source to implement the objective of the measures should they be enacted into law.
The nine bills were all passed on second reading during the session.
“The amendment will precisely fund this hospital [because] as originally proposed by the committee, the funding of this hospital will be hanging in the air,” Drilon said at one point when he was introducing his amendments to one of the bills.
Before this, Drilon said he and Sen. Go, who is sponsoring the legislation as the chairman of the Senate Health committee, had agreed the funds for these measures be taken from the Department of Health’s (DOH’s) Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP).
The move comes after Go turned down Drilon’s initial offer to tap underused funding sources such as the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefit Fund (MPBF) and the Pension and Gratuity Fund (PGF). MPBF has P29.3 billion while PGF has P152.9 billion under this year’s budget.
Go said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) requested that funding for the measures be sourced from the 2022 budget instead since the funds under 2021 budget have already been allotted for other purposes.
“Ang ibig sabihin talagang walang pondo?” Drilon asked, pointing out that the bills, once signed into law, would become effective 15 days after its publication.
“If we approve it before we adjourn in June, this bill becomes law in July. Now, are we saying that in July, we cannot fund this? E, we better be candid. That is why I am proposing this because as the Secretary of Budget said in the LEDAC (Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council) meeting today, the problem with us is that we pass laws which are unfunded mandates,” Drilon added.
“That is why I don’t want to disappoint our people. We pass a law which will add hospital beds in Rizal, Palawan and yet there is no fund? There is no fund to back it up?” he further said.
But Drilon and Go eventually agreed to “find a solution” and source the funding for the bills from the 2022 national budget.
“This representation agreed to the source of the funding, provided the Health Facilities Enhancement [Program] fund should be the initial source and if it is insufficient then the budget can be sourced from the [MPBF] and the [PGF],” Drilon said.
“In other words, first, we look at the HFEP as a source of the funding. If it is insufficient then we go to the [MPBF] and the [PGF,” he added.
For his part, Go said he would assure that the DOH would be obligated to ensure that the funding for these hospitals will not be left hanging.
“Ako naman po, gusto ko obligahin ang ating DOH na ‘wag hayaan na nakabitin sa ere, lalo na sa funding sa mga hospital, dahil nakabinbin din ang mga buhay ng bawat ng Pilipino,” he said.
“At bawat oras na lumilipas ay maraming namamatay, buhay ng Pilipino ang nakataya diyan,” he added.
Last week, Drilon and Go clashed after the latter accused the veteran lawmaker of delaying its passage and asking that debates on the measures be terminated, a practice that was “never” done in the Senate.
Earlier this week, Drilon confronted Go for insinuating that he was deliberately delaying the passage of the said bills.
Citing Senate records, the minority leader said the hospital bills sponsored by Go have languished in the latter’s committee for a year to 15 months.
Go, however, had denied that his committee “slept” on the said bills. He said there were “so many factors that contributed to the time it took to report these bills to [the] plenary.”(©Philippine Daily Inquirer 2021)
