{"id":10202,"date":"2020-09-10T17:13:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T09:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/?p=10202"},"modified":"2020-09-14T08:49:52","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T00:49:52","slug":"philippine-health-recovery-not-a-priority-for-duterte-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/philippine-health-recovery-not-a-priority-for-duterte-administration\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippine health recovery not a priority for Duterte administration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Deliberations on the proposed Php4.5-trillion General\nAppropriations Act (GAA) for 2021 have begun. This budget will be\ncrucial for the Philippines to fast track recovery from the worst\nhealth and economic crisis in its history because of COVID-19. But it\nis not at all about health recovery as the Duterte administration\nhypes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2021 submitted to\nCongress, the government actually defunds areas that are vital to\nboost the public health system in the time of a pandemic. These\ninclude those for disease surveillance, health infrastructure, and\nhuman resource capacity building. Despite the glaring health and\neconomic needs exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the NEP for 2021\nreflects how the government sticks to its old priorities such as\ntransport infrastructure and defense, which are not what the\nsituation urgently requires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Making the health\nsystem weaker<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The effect of\nCOVID-19 on the health and livelihoods of the Filipino people is more\nsevere compared to other nations. While countries around the world\nare starting to recover from the pandemic, the Philippines has the\nmost total and new COVID-19 cases and the most deaths per million\npopulation in East Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>COVID-19 is\nstretching the health system\u2019s capacity and the vaccine for the\ncoronavirus is still far from the people\u2019s reach. It is only\nrational and urgent to ensure that resources to further enhance and\ncapacitate the country\u2019s health system are made available. However,\nthe government is not prioritizing this. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bayanihan 2, a\nstimulus package aiming to cushion the effects of the pandemic,\nallots only Php30.5 billion for health-related responses to COVID\nsuch as tracing, treatment, support for health workers, health\nfacilities, and pandemic research. There is also a Php10-billion\nstandby fund for testing, which is paltry according to health\nadvocates. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The proposed 2021 budget for the Department of Health meanwhile has been increased from Php104 billion in 2020 to Php131.7 billion in 2021 or a Php27.7-billion hike. But allotments for some of the most essential programs for health recovery have been slashed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<script id=\"infogram_0_b232f68d-f764-4fd1-9d1f-cc2c059a5674\" title=\"20200910 Selected Health Programs\" src=\"https:\/\/e.infogram.com\/js\/dist\/embed.js?xwb\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><div style=\"padding:8px 0;font-family:Arial!important;font-size:13px!important;line-height:15px!important;text-align:center;border-top:1px solid #dadada;margin:0 30px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/infogram.com\/b232f68d-f764-4fd1-9d1f-cc2c059a5674\" style=\"color:#989898!important;text-decoration:none!important;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">20200910 Selected Health Programs<\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/infogram.com\" style=\"color:#989898!important;text-decoration:none!important;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Infogram<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The budget for the\nEpidemiology and Surveillance program, which is important to control\nthe spread of diseases through timely data and research, was halved\nin 2020 \u2013 from Php263 million in 2019 to Php116 million this year.\nA larger budget would clearly have helped strengthen preventive\nmeasures versus COVID-19 in the country at the beginning of the year\nwhen the first cases emerged. Yet despite the proven importance of\nthis program, the government even proposes to reduce it further to\nPhp113 million in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The proposed budget\nallocation for the Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP),\nwhich ensures the maintenance and quality of public healthcare\nfacilities, also decreases this year. HFEP is actually being\nallocated lower and lower budgets each year as hospitals are obliged\nto generate their own income to fund infrastructure-building and\nmaintenance. From an Php8.4 billion budget for HFEP in 2020, the\nproposed budget for 2021 is only Php4.8 billion, or almost 50% less\nthan its current budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The National\nReference Laboratories are vital in detecting and testing COVID-19\ncases and other emerging diseases. But the proposed budget for these\ndecreases from the present Php326 million to Php289 million. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though one of\nthe main issues during this pandemic is poor data management and\nreporting by the DOH, the proposed budget for Health Information\nTechnology drops massively from Php1.2 billion in 2020 \u2013 which it\nfailed to use properly \u2013 to Php97 million, or a 92% decrease.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The proposed budget\nallocation for Human Resource for Health (HRH) deployment increases,\nbut the program that ensures that the health workforce is equipped\nwith proper training and knowledge to deal with different medical\nsituations is decreased. The budget for HRH Institutional and\nCapacity Management has been cut by Php15 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The DOH\u2019s COVID-19\nspecific programs \u2013 the Php4.2 billion Health System Enhancement to\nAddress and Limit COVID-19 and the Php1 billion Philippines COVID-19\nEmergency Response Project \u2013 are mere drops in the country\u2019s\nbudget bucket.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What government\ncares for<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Duterte\nadministration\u2019s proposed budget for 2021 shows how little it cares\nfor the health and socioeconomic recovery of the Filipino people. The\nbiggest chunk of the proposed 2021 budget goes to the Php1.1 trillion\n\u201cBuild, Build, Build\u201d program taking up 24% of the total budget.\nOnly a tiny fraction of this goes to health infrastructure with the\nDOH getting just Php2.3 billion or barely one-fifth of one percent\n(0.2%) of total infrastructure spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of the\ninfrastructure projects lined up \u2013 such as big-ticket railways and\nroads funded with China and Japan loans \u2013 are not as urgently\nneeded as facilities for health and more direct measures to support\nthe socioeconomic recovery of distressed households and small\nbusinesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The government is\napparently only willing to spend Php203.1 billion on its so-called\nuniversal health care program including to respond to the pandemic \u2013\nthis is just 4.5% of the total proposed budget for 2021. As it is,\nthe Php1.1 trillion infrastructure budget is almost 5 \u00bd times\nlarger. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The proposed budget\nfor the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is Php667.3\nbillion or over five times that of the DOH. The government will\nallocate Php7.6 billion for primary roads\u2019 maintenance and repair\nalone which is almost three times the size of the DOH budget for the\nCOVID-19 vaccine, at only Php2.4 billion. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The DOH\u2019s proposed\nPhp203.1 billion budget \u2013 even including the budget for PhilHealth\n\u2013 ranks only 5<sup>th<\/sup> among department budgets in  2021. This\nis because, amid the unprecedented public health emergency, the DOH\u2019s\nproposed 2021 budget is only a Php25.4 billion increase from the GAA\nthis year. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The DPWH gets a much\nbigger Php228.4 billion increase to Php667.3 billion, as does the\nDepartment of National Defense (DND) which gets a Php29.4 billion\nincrease to Php209.1 billion. The military and police forces will\nstill be receiving more funds than the health sector. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Duterte administration\u2019s proposed 2021 budget bares how it is not changing its priorities despite the marked worsening of the Philippine health situation. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, infrastructure has been consistently a priority over the health sector which, if anything, is even being distorted and privatized. The people\u2019s health and strengthening the public health system are among the most immediate areas needing attention which, apparently, the administration simply refuses to give.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY MARICAR PIEDAD<\/p>\n<p>This budget will be crucial for the Philippines to fast track recovery from the worst health and economic crisis in its history because of COVID-19. But it is not at all about health recovery as the Duterte administration hypes.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":10203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-withbanner.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[2048,3],"tags":[2199,2218,2343,347,2344,2153,2321,2345],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10202"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10240,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10202\/revisions\/10240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}