DOH budget only augmented by P200M, Ungab says

The Department of Health will only be receiving a P200-million augmentation from the House of Representatives to their budget under the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020.

House Committee on Appropriations chair Isidro Ungab said this Thursday after it was reported earlier in the day that the chamber will give an additional P250 million to the department to aid in its campaign against polio.

"The DOH budget is augmented by P200 million only, to be distributed as follows: P100 million for the additional MOOE (maintenance and other operating expenses) of the National Center for Mental Health and P100 million for Quick Response Fund or QRF," Ungab said in a statement.

"There will be an additional amount of P500 million for the Hospital Services Program of UP-PGH (Philippine General Hospital) for the provision of its medical services," he added.

Ungab said that the budget augmentation for the DOH was sourced from the allocated appropriations for the 2020 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections slated in May next year.

Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano earlier said that barangay polls will not push through, even as no law has been signed yet providing for its postponement.

Earlier in the day, House Deputy Majority Leader Bernadette Herrera-Dy told reporters that an additional P250 million will be given to the DOH for its polio drive.

However, in Ungab's latest statement, he said that the funds for the polio campaign may be harnessed from the QRF.

"The amount allotted for the Quick Response Fund can be used to address polio," he said.

The DOH has said that polio is reemerging in the Philippines 19 years after it has been eradicated.

At least two polio cases have been confirmed this year --- one in a 3-year-old girl in Lanao Del Sur and the other in a 5-year-old boy in Laguna. — RSJ, GMA News