Opposition senators question lower 2021 DOH budget amid COVID19 crisis
MANILA - Opposition senators on Wednesday questioned why the Department of Health's proposed 2021 budget is P21 billion less than the current year's funding as the threat of the coronavirus disease 2019 continues.
"We should be able to provide confidence to the public that we can address the pandemic... and yet for next year we are only allocating P131B [for DOH]? Isn't there something wrong with this?" Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said during the first day of budget hearings in the Senate. "Tila anemic naman 'yung budget natin para sa kalusugan," Hontiveros said, noting that the DOH got the 5th largest chunk of the P4.5 trillion 2021 budget. LOOK: Top 10 departments which will receive biggest allocations in 2021 budget pic.twitter.com/Xb2TiqQ9XKBudget Secretary Wendel Avisado said that the DOH funding this year was higher because several equipment had to be procured for COVID-19 testing.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan urged economic managers to "appeal" to President Rodrigo Duterte to "reboot" the government's COVID-19 counter measures."We have to confront our management... How can we entice investors to come in when we do not address this disease?" he said. "The main limitation we have here is the fiscal deficit... If we exceed that, we are going to prejudice our ability to raise funds in the future," he said.
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