UNHEALTHY PRIORITY | Slashing fund from PGH budget ‘unfair, unacceptable,’ says group

August 29, 2022 , 02:28 PM

By Beatrice Puente

(August 29, 2022) – Instead of slashing the budget, a union of workers from the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila and the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) urged the administration of President Bongbong Marcos Jr. to allocate much higher funding to the country’s premier state hospital.

Karen Faurillo, the president of the All UP Workers Union-Manila/PGH, stressed that the PGH needs additional support to sustain its operations and help poor patients. If anything, Faurillo said the health institution must be given a budget of P10 billion.

“The budget slash is unfair and unacceptable as PGH is known as a premier training hospital and ‘Ospital ng Bayan.’ (The) PGH budget cut is a clear indication that people’s health is not a priority of this government,” said Faurillo in a statement.

Under the 2023 National Expenditure Program (NEP) crafted by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the PGH will receive P5.93 billion worth of funding. It is much lower than the P6.3 billion budget it received this year from the P24.39 billion total appropriation provided to the UP System, which oversees the PGH.

The DBM attributed the decrease in the budget of the state-owned hospital to the “upward adjustments” for the capital outlay projects of the hospital included in the 2022 General Appropriations Act. It also noted the “absorptive capacity” of the PGH, which reportedly takes care of an estimated 600,000 patients every year, in deciding how much to allocate.

“The DBM takes into consideration the budget utilization rate of any government institution prior to budget allocation in the proposed NEP. Hence, in our review and evaluation of UP’s budget proposals, we considered its absorptive capacity, which is 66% as of end-2021,” said the DBM.

DBM secretary Amenah Pangandaman maintained that education and health are among the top priorities of the administration. The proposed budget of the DBM can still change depending on the deliberations of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Many netizens couldn’t help but note that the funding of the Office of the Vice President was given a 220% increase under the submitted budget of the DBM.

Some lawmakers, including Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, have already sought the restoration of the whole UP System budget to better address the needs of poor Filipinos.

“Unlike private health facilities, these hospitals are allocated medical assistance funds in the national budget, which they use to help poor patients,” said Rodriguez.

Faurillo urged the government to listen to the demands of the sector. If granted a P10 billion budget, she said the PGH can use this to upgrade facilities, hire additional healthcare workers, and cover assistance for more indigent patients, among others.

“President Marcos Jr. said our hopes are his hopes. So let me inform the newly elected president that we fervently hope that the government would appropriate PGH a P10 billion budget for 2023. We neither hope for a budget slash,” said Faurillo.

(PM)

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