{"id":244016,"date":"2020-02-04T18:47:18","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T23:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=244016"},"modified":"2020-02-04T18:47:18","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T23:47:18","slug":"up-to-doh-to-seek-higher-2021-budget-nograles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/02\/04\/up-to-doh-to-seek-higher-2021-budget-nograles\/","title":{"rendered":"Up to DOH to seek higher 2021 budget: Nograles"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles during the Pandesal Forum held at Kamuning Bakery Cafe, Kamuning, Quezon City on Tuesday (Jan. 24, 2020). (PNA photo by Ben Briones)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— It will be up to the Department of Health (DOH) to decide whether a higher budget for 2021 is needed to improve its capacity to fight diseases such as the novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (nCoV-ARD), Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Nograles made this statement following concerns raised by Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas that the 50 percent cut in the budget allocation for epidemiology and disease surveillance would dampen the DOH\u2019s capability to prevent future outbreaks from happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cAyaw ko pangunahan ang (I don\u2019t want to pre-empt the) DOH. They\u2019re the ones who are properly informed about their budgetary needs,\u201d Nograles said in a Pandesal Forum in Kamuning, Quezon City.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it is budget call right now for 2021, I leave it up to the DOH to write up their proposed budget for 2021, complete tier 1 and tier 2,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Nograles expressed confidence that the DOH would take into consideration epidemiology and disease surveillance when it submits its proposed budget for next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, if we need to give them more funds, we should,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The proposed budget for the DOH was reduced from PHP97.65 billion in 2019 to PHP 88.26 billion this year.<\/p>\n

The PHP 10-billion cut in the DOH was met with strong public criticism amid \u201ca string of epidemics\u201d affecting the country last year such as the resurgence of the polio virus and dengue outbreaks in various regions.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Quezon 4th district Rep. Angelina Tan proposed the passage of a PHP1 billion supplemental budget to allow the DOH to strengthen the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).<\/p>\n

House Committee on Appropriations Chairman and Davao City 3rd district Rep. Isidro Ungab vowed to immediately act on the proposed supplemental budget to help fight the spread of nCoV-ARD in the country.<\/p>\n

Nograles, a former lawmaker, said the request for a supplemental budget will have to undergo proper budget processes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we need additional budget somehow, then saka na tayo mag trigger ng (that\u2019s when we trigger) mechanisms for a supplemental budget. Let\u2019s work through a process,\u201d Nograles said.<\/p>\n

There are two confirmed cases of nCoV-ARD in the country, according to the DOH.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the number of persons under investigation (PUIs) for possible infection has risen to 105.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— It will be up to the Department of Health (DOH) to decide whether a higher budget for 2021 is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":244017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244018,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244016\/revisions\/244018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}