Nancy Binay slams DOH for deleting funds for gov’t cancer program in 2022 budget

Senator Nancy Binay on Thursday slammed the Department of Health over its non-prioritization of the government’s cancer program funding in the 2022 national budget.

In a statement, Binay said the government’s non-inclusion of cancer funds in next year’s budget is a “step back” after Congress pushed to empower the national cancer control program.

“The DOH should have taken our cue when we allocated P620 million last year for cancer. Batas ‘yan, at long-term priority (That is a law and it is a long-term priority). Instead of moving forward this is a step back that we should correct. When survival matters, you don't make lifelines invisible,” she said.

The senator recalled that the P620-million cancer funds was only included in the 2021 national budget when lawmakers advocated for it during the bicameral conference.

Of the said amount, P500 million was intended for the Cancer Control Program fund while the remaining P120 million was for the Cancer Assistance fund.

Binay said it was the Cancer Coalition of the Philippines which sounded the alarm on the non-inclusion of cancer funds in the 2022 budget.

Instead of a solo provision for the cancer fund, the DOH has opted to include the funding for National Integrated Cancer Control Program, including cancer medicines for children, and the Cancer Assistance under the budget for non-communicable diseases (NCD).

For 2022, the DOH has proposed P1.3 billion for the NCD.

“Hindi katanggap-tanggap na tila hindi permanenteng priority ang suporta para sa mga cancer patients natin. Dahil nakabulto lang sa NCD budget, walang linaw kung magkano ba talaga ang nakalaan, at ang pangamba ay baka paglaruan lang ang budget na ito,” Binay said.

(It is unacceptable that the support for our cancer patients was not treated as a permanent priority. The appropriations for this is unclear since the funds were included in the NCD budget. What's more dangerous is the budget may be used for other purposes.)

"This is another half-baked idea that the DOH is trying to implement, which again puts in question the priorities of its leadership,” she added.

Furthermore, the senator hit the National Integrated Cancer Control Council for its failure to craft a national policy response to cancer.

"This issue over the budget stems from the lack of a clear policy direction which the NICC Council has the responsibility of crafting,” she said.

Binay vowed to file an amendment on the DOH’s budget once the 2022 budget reaches the Senate.

Currently, the House of Representatives is deliberating on the P5.024-trillion 2022 budget.

Appropriation measures should be passed first by the House of Representatives before the Senate can deliberate on it.—AOL, GMA News