Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto described it as ”all deep and none superficial,” as he announced that four specialty hospitals in Quezon City are facing budget cuts next year.
The institutes facing budget cuts will be Lung Center of the Philippines, Philippine Heart Center, National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI), and Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC).
On the brighter side, Recto assured that looking back at history, the decrease in subsidy may be mended by the Congress.
“The yearly ritual is that those tasked to prepare the national budget will propose an amount lower than the current year’s, and then both chambers restore the cuts or even increase the subsidy,” he said.
The said hospitals classified as government corporations claim their finances from the “budgetary support” of the national budget.
This type of funding subsidizes a part of an agency’s yearly operating costs, but is subjected to restrictions, one of which is it cannot be used for salaries, which shall be funded by operating income.
The Lung Center’s budget will drop from this year’s P684 million backed by the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA) to P630.2 million after a proposed P53.7 million decrease, according to the deputy speaker.
The Heart Center will experience a P121 million slide from their P1.88 billion budget this year down to P1.73 billion in the proposed 2023 National Expenditure Program (NEP).
The biggest financial hit will fall on the NKTI, whose budget will plunge by P362 million from P1.5 billion in the 2022 GAA to P1.15 billion for the 2023 NEP.
PCMC’s budget will be trimmed by P344 million, down from P1.5 billion this year to P1.15 billion in the following year.
Recto appealed that the four hospitals must be “spared from the budget cuts not because these are legacy institutions close to the President’s heart as they were built by his parents, but because these are excellent hospitals our people have come to value.”
He also added that those who okayed the decrease may have slept through the President’s first State of the Nation Address where he hailed that abovementioned hospitals worthy to be replicated as regional centers.
“Somebody probably did not get the memo,” said Recto, emphasizing that the proposed national budget is printed in a “3,842-page, three-volume” unit.
“Yung budget kasi is a spreadsheet consisting of 150,000 lines of numbers and provisions,” he added.
He further reiterated in an analogy the importance of Heart Center, mentioning that it serves as a vulcanizing shop for the arteries of the heart and, together with Philippine General Hospital (PGH), these hospitals serve as a last resort.
“Yung Heart Center is an indispensable national necessity. It is a referral hospital. Kung kailangan i-vulcanize ang ugat sa puso mo, ito at ang PGH ang mga hospitals of last resort.”
Recto expects that proponents of the budget cuts may “probably justify their move by saying that previous augmentations done by Congress were for one one-time equipment purchases.”
He denied the theoretical claim by pointing out that, “There is no pause in hospital improvement.”
“Kahit idagdag pa ang pondong matatanggap ng apat na ito mula sa P23 billion na Health Facilities Enhancement Program, ang bottomline ay kulang pa rin.”
“Kung babawasan mo ang pondo, e di parang binawasan mo ang oxygen ng isang Covid patient,” Recto said.
As of now, a several month-long waiting period bugs the indigent patients of Heart Center in need of procedures.
Photo credit: facebook.com/RalphRectoOfficial