This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 1, Feb. 4-10, 2007
Health Groups Decry ‘Patronage Politics’ The
P294-million remaining budget of the Department of Health (DoH) for the last
quarter of 2006 will be of great use, but unfortunately not to the health
department and its services. Despite the intractable logistical matters and the
great need for resources that have been festering our public healthcare system,
the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) decided not to release the DoH
funds. BY
PHILIP PARAAN The P294-million ($6.15
million based on a $1:P48.78 exchange rate) remaining budget of the Department
of Health (DoH) for the last quarter of 2006 will be of great use, but
unfortunately not to the health department and its services. Despite the intractable
logistical matters and the great need for resources that have been festering our
public healthcare system, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) decided
not to release the DoH funds. This was revealed during a
picket–dialogue between the protesting health workers last Jan. 29, which
coincides with the deadline set by the DBM for all budget requests before all of
last year’s undisbursed appropriations goes back to the national treasury. To the Alliance of Health
Workers (AHW), a national organization of hospital workers’ unions, this is a
case of DoH and DBM courting contempt of the government’s own fiscal rules,
referring to the fact that legislated budget cannot just be withheld or diverted
to any other use. According to the DoH, it
did however filed a request to the DBM to obtain the funds earlier last year and
exhausted all procedural means to get hold of its last quarter budget.
But health workers now ask,
“Where is the money?” Health workers were prompted to take action regarding the
missing budget not only because of the failure of the DoH to provide work
enhancement benefits, but, more importantly, the amount could have been useful
to health services, programs and other operations where it is rightfully
intended. Unable to adequately
explain why the last quarter budget of the health department was not released,
the DoH officials, through Usec. Alexander Padilla of DoH’s Legal Department,
points to the DBM, however questionable and arbitrary the basis were for the
denial of the funds. The budget department claims that the health sector had
enough savings for the year (2006) considering that it was still able to provide
work enhancement benefits to its hospital workers. DoH Department Order
No.2006-0067 or the DoH Work Enhancement Benefit (WEB), which the DBM said was
one of the reasons the last quarter budget was withheld, stipulated that each
DoH employee was to receive P10,000 ($205) as Christmas bonus, supposed to be
paid in two installments in December 22 and 29 of last year. The WEB, according
to the order, would come from the current allotment and savings of government
hospitals from its cost-cutting schemes. It was not allotted from the budget or
savings of the DoH. “The WEB is double-standard
and deceitful because most hospitals are overdraft and under budgeted,” said
Emma Manuel, president of the AHW in an earlier interview. Furthermore, Manuel
asserts that health services cannot be subject to cost-cutting schemes
considering that it is already under funded and grossly inadequate. Among the major government
hospitals in Metro Manila, hospital personnel from the Tondo Medical Center,
Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine
did not receive anything, while those from the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical
Center, San Lazaro Hospital, and the National Center for Mental Health received
partial payments ranging from P2,000 ($41) to P5,000 ($102.50). While DoH officials
complain that this is an obvious case of infringement of official functions
between the two departments, the DoH further criticized the DBM for interfering
with its program implementation. Skeptical health workers however believe that
there is a seeming collusion between the two departments. Meanwhile sources within
the health department say that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has promised to
fund the rehabilitation of some districts hospitals in the country as part of
her commitment to local government units. If this is so, the government would be
contravening the principle and operation of devolution. Since the devolution,
maintenance of local health facilities, including provincial and district
hospitals no longer becomes a DoH concern but that of the local governments. For the AHW, this episode
reminds them of how in the election of 2004 funds from the Overseas Workers
Welfare Administration (OWWA) were diverted to fund the distribution of free
Philhealth cards, a project current Health Secretary Francisco Duque implemented
himself when he was still Philhealth president, to boost GMA’s election
campaign. The Health Alliance for
Democracy (HEAD), fears that the withheld funds might find its way to the
administration party’s campaign kitty. According to the secretary-general of
HEAD Dr. Gene Nisperos, the budget allocated to DoH hospitals has not
significantly changed over the last six years under the Arroyo regime. The total
budget of the 12 biggest DoH hospitals in Metro Manila amounted to only P2.48
billion in 2001 ($48,636,987 based on that year’s $1:P50.99 exchange rate). This
became P2.55 billion in 2002 ($49.42 million based on a $1:P51.60 exchange
rate), P2.61 billion in 2003 ($48.15 million based on an exchange rate of
$1:P54.20), P2.53 billion in 2004 ($45.15 million based on an exchange rate of
($1:P56.04), and back to P2.48 billion in 2006 ($50.84 million based on a
$1:P48.78 exchange rate). Bulatlat © 2007 Bulatlat
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behind Withdrawal of DoH Last-Quarter Allotment
Contributed to Bulatlat