Senator Christopher “Bong” Go, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health, emphasized in an interview on Tuesday, 26 September, the urgent need to bolster the Department of Health’s budget as the country movestowards pandemic recovery even amid several existing and emerging public health concerns.
He recalled the budget deliberations in December 2019 when there were attempts to cut the budget of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine for year 2020.
“In the 2019 budget deliberations, I defended the RITM budget which was on the brink of being slashed. We even added more funds,” he narrated.
This decision turned out to be crucial then, as RITM later played a vital role in Covid-19 testing when the pandemic started in 2020. Go noted that the restoration of RITM’s budget underscored the importance of adequately funding healthcare institutions, especially in unpredictable times.
Go’s recollection came at a critical time when DoH is facing a P10-billion budget cut for 2024. The proposed budget cut would bring DoH’s overall budget down to P199.45 billion from P209.62 billion under the General Appropriations Act of 2023.
With this, Go argued that the healthcare system needs more, not less, financial support. He then underscored the urgency for increased investment in the public healthcare system.
Meanwhile, Go continued to push for the Department of Disaster Resilience and Mandatory Evacuation Center bills.
Go’s office, in coordination with Mayor Clark Ngaya, distributed grocery packs to 500 typhoon “Egay” victims at the municipal hall in Barlig, Mountain Province last Monday, 25 September.