DILG proposed no budget for COVID-19 contact-tracing in 2021

The Department of Interior and Local Government has no allocation for COVID-19 contact-tracing in the proposed P4.056-trillion General Appropriations Bill for 2021.

At the Senate deliberations on the DILG's proposed P244-billion outlay for next year, Senator Ralph Rector said it seemed that the government had abandoned contact-tracing as a strategy to stop the transmission of the coronavirus.

“I do not think that is wise to abandon contact-tracing immediately. I just want to put that on record.  It is better to be sure," Recto said.

Recto raised the second or third wave of COVID-19 cases in Europe and the United States, pointing out the need to contact-trace and immediately test 30,000 individuals per 1,000 positive cases. 

"And since many are jobless, it is better that we will be able to provide jobs,” Recto said.

DILG officials, through its sponsor Senator Sonny Angara, had told the Senate plenary that there was no budget for contact tracing in 2021 but added that the government had yet to stop its contact-tracing efforts.

Angara said local government units could start paying for the 50,000 contact tracers hired by the DILG once their contracts expire.

"Hindi naman siguro full abandonment but it is in a sense a scaling back, your honor, given that there is no continuity for the 50,000," Angara said.

"According to the Secretary, they are not abandoning it, your honor, but they will continue to supervise the LGUs who have also hired contact tracers of their own, as well as the PNP (Philippine National Police) and the BFP (Bureau of Fire Protection)," he added.

Recto, meanwhile, stressed that there is no certainty that the LGUs would be able to hire more contact tracers next year, considering the economic slump.-NB/LDF, GMA News