House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is urging the bicameral conference on the proposed 2019 P3.757-trillion national budget to increase by P10 billion the allocations for the Health department to improve its health facilities and to help it retain more health personnel.
She instructed bicameral conference co-chairman and House committee on appropriations chairman and Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. to add P5 billion for the health facilities program to upgrade government hospitals and village health centers.
She also sought an additional P5 billion for the health human Resources development to prevent any mass layoff of 6,000 health personnel, including doctors, nurses and dentists in government health facilities.
“There should be consistent support to our health sector because [the department] is playing a very crucial and front-line role in the never-ending need for sufficient and timely health care, especially in our poor communities,” Arroyo said.
“It needs all the funding support it can get, especially in the light of the passage of the Universal Health Care bill.”
Health Secretary Francisco Duque had previously batted for more funds to complete over 1,000 health-care facilities.
Meanwhile, Arroyo asked for a P20-billion increase in the budget of the Department of Agriculture to raise farmers’ income and cushion the impact of inflation.
She urged the bicameral conference on the proposed 2019 General Appropriations Bill to allocate P350 million to the Department of Public Works and Highways to help over 8,000 urban poor families at the National Government Center in Quezon City to own the parcels of land they have long been occupying. “‹