HIGHER BUDGET. Senator Christopher “Bong” Go (left) chats with Health Secretary Teodoro Javier Herbosa during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Barangay 28 super health center in Caloocan City on Aug. 2. Go vowed on Wednesday (August 16, 2023) to push for an increase in the DOH’s proposed 2024 budget to further improve the country’s health care system. (PNA photo by Yancy Lim)
MANILA – Senator Christopher Lawrence Go vowed on Wednesday to push for a higher budget for the Department of Health when its proposed 2024 budget reaches the scrutiny of the Senate.
"Ako naman dapat po ay dagdagan ang ating DOH. The more we should invest sa ating healthcare system dahil hindi natin alam kung ito na ba ang huling pandemya na darating sa buhay natin (For me, the budget for DOH should increase. The more we should invest for our healthcare system because we don't know if this will be the last pandemic that we will experience)," Go said in an interview.
"Napakaimportante po na pagtuunan natin ng pansin ang ating (It is important that we focus on our) healthcare system. The more we should improve, the more we should add budget sa ating (in our) health department," he added.
Under the proposed 2024 national budget, the DOH is allocated PHP306.1 billion, which is lower than the PHP314.7 billion it got in 2023.
The chairperson the Senate Committee on Health and Demography noted that before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country in 2019, he pushed to increase the 2020 proposed budget of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, the only agency that was only capable then to conduct Covid-19 tests.
He also pushed in 2023 to add PHP1 billion to the proposed budget of DOH for the assistance fund for cancer treatment facilities and for the procurement of other health facilities.
Among the government agencies, the DOH got the third highest budget last year after earning the full support of the Senate. (PNA)
