Senators have pushed for higher allocation for social protection services such as the expansion of zero balance billing in LGU hospitals in the proposed 2026 budget as well as the passage of a Magna Carta for Barangays to ensure better pay for village officials.
Senate Deputy Majority Leader Risa Hontiveros urged the Senate contingent in the bicameral conference committee to include a special provision in the 2026 budget that would earmark about P15 billion to expand zero balance billing services in hospitals operated by local government units.
The proposal seeks to carve out roughly 30 percent of the P51-billion allocation approved by the bicameral panel for the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) program and direct it specifically to LGU hospitals for free in-patient care.
“I hope the Senate bicameral contingent will be open to accepting my proposal, especially since we have already responded to the Department of Health’s request to expand zero balance billing coverage to LGU hospitals by providing P1 billion for this in our version of the 2026 budget,” Hontiveros said.
Hontiveros, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, said the measure would guarantee that a substantial portion of the MAIFIP fund is used to strengthen zero balance billing coverage beyond national government facilities.
At present, zero balance billing covers the full cost of services for patients confined under basic or ward accommodations in hospitals run by the Department of Health, leaving most LGU hospitals outside the program’s scope.
The proposed special provision seeks to close that gap by extending the same benefit to hundreds of provincial-, city-, and municipal-run hospitals that serve a large share of poor and vulnerable patients.
As this developed, senators also pushed for better pay for barangay officials, noting the measly honorarium they get every month.
Senator Rodante Marcoleta cited the need to pass the proposed Magna Carta for Barangays, noting that village chiefs receive an average of only P8,000 per month.
Village watchmen, on the other hand, get only a monthly honorarium of about P1,500, while a “lupon tagapamayapa” gets only P300 per month, the senator said.
“We need to give equal opportunities for the smaller barangays, especially for those in fourth class, fifth class, and even sixth class municipalities,” Marcoleta said.
“We should give them higher funding,” he added.
Senator Jinggoy Estrada added: “We should give barangay officials the dignity they deserve as they are the ones in the frontline.”
