Bill to tap Malampaya funds for health care gets DOH support

IN response to the World Health Organization’s ( WHO) forecast that the Covid-19 pandemic might linger for a prolonged period, the Department of Health (DOH) has supported the immediate passage of a bill providing additional sources of funding to enhance the country’s pandemic response next year.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told lawmakers that the DOH is supporting the passage of House Bill 7800, or the Public Health Infrastructure Act, as “there are many inadequacies in our health- care sector, especially when it comes to facilities.”

“We feel the effects, especially in provincial regions that have limited hospitals and testing laboratories. With this bill, we can increase our budget and put up more facilities. It can fill critical gaps in the system,” Vergeire said during the “Funding the PH Health-care System amid Covid” media forum.

House Committee on Labor Chairman Rep. Eric Pineda, House

Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Chairman Virgilio Lacson and Deputy Speaker Michael Romero said they filed House Bill 7800 to improve the health- care infrastructure in the country.

The measure seeks to amend Presidential Decree 910 to allow Congress to appropriate a portion of the Malampaya funds and other possible sources of funding to improve the state of public health care.

Pineda, noting the UP Covid-19 Pandemic Response Team’s assessment, said the country has only 3.7 doctors for every 10,000 persons, far below WHO’S prescribed ratio of 10 doctors per 10,000 persons.

He said WHO prescribes one hospital bed for every 500 people but “there is no region in the country that has reached this recommended ratio.”

Pineda said DOH has set a “modest” target of one hospital bed for every 800 people, which has only been reached so far by the National

Capital Region (NCR).

The authors of the bill said the Philippines currently has 88,394 hospital beds out of the total target of 131,235, or a shortage of 42,856 hospital beds in the country, while the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region has only 0.8 doctor per 10,000 people.

“The Covid-19 pandemic underscores the need to infuse adequate funds to public health infrastructure. However, considering that the government debt has stacked up to P8.6 trillion in April alone to support a comprehensive recovery from the plunge of the national and global economy, it is imperative to look into alternative sources of funding for public health,” Pineda added.

The lawmaker said authors of the bill will ask Speaker Lord Allan Velasco to include the proposal as one of the priority measures of the lower chamber.

Pineda said they will also meet their Senate counterparts for the immediate passage of the measure as they are targeting the approval of the bill before the end of the year.

While private sector funding eclipses government health expenditure, Lacson, for his part, said even the private health sector buckled under the enormous weight of Covid-19 cases.

He said Malampaya has generated over $11 billion in revenues for the government. Its scale of remittance has ranged from $800 million to $1.1 billion annually. Lacson said a portion of the revenue may be tapped to augment the needs of the public health-care sector, through an amendment of PD 910.

Without an amendment to PD 910, the Malampaya fund may only be used to finance further energy development programs of the government.

The amendments will include the phrase “as well as, to finance public health infrastructure projects of the government, as may be appropriated by Congress.”