{"id":247699,"date":"2020-03-10T23:57:49","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T03:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=247699"},"modified":"2020-03-10T23:57:49","modified_gmt":"2020-03-11T03:57:49","slug":"p1-6-b-addl-budget-for-covid-19-response-hurdles-house-panel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/10\/p1-6-b-addl-budget-for-covid-19-response-hurdles-house-panel\/","title":{"rendered":"P1.6-B add’l budget for Covid-19 response hurdles House panel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The panel, chaired by ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap, approved the still-unnumbered bill as the confirmed coronavirus cases in the country more than doubled to 24. (File Photo<\/a>: House of Representatives of the Philippines\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The House of Representatives\u2019 appropriations committee on Tuesday approved a measure seeking a PHP1.65-billion supplemental budget for the Department of Health (DOH) to address the threat of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).<\/p>\n

The panel, chaired by ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap, approved the still-unnumbered bill as the confirmed coronavirus cases in the country more than doubled to 24.<\/p>\n

The original bills sought for around PHP2-billion worth of additional appropriations to combat the new public health threat, however, the National Treasury said during the hearing that only PHP1.65 billion is available in excess funds.<\/p>\n

The DOH needs a total of PHP3.1 billion to procure personal protective equipment, 40,000 test kits, as well as funding for the maintenance and other operating expenses and salaries for the Bureau of Quarantine.<\/p>\n

Health Undersecretary Roger Tong-an said the DOH can source the remaining funds needed, particularly: PHP2 billion from Philippine Amusement Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR), PHP420 million from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and PHP81 million from the DOH’s quick response fund and savings.<\/p>\n

Budget Undersecretary Janet Abuel, meanwhile, said the government can also source the money from the PHP13-billion contingency fund and PHP7.5-billion national disaster risk reduction and management fund.<\/p>\n

Currently, there are 24 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country.<\/p>\n

President Rodrigo Duterte has issued a proclamation formally declaring a state of public health emergency throughout the Philippines after the DOH reported the first known local transmission of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

He also ordered the suspension of classes in all levels in Metro Manila to minimize students’ risk of contracting the disease.<\/p>\n

DOH has also placed the country under Covid-19 Alert System to Code Red (Sub-Level 1) to prepare for a possible increase in suspected and confirmed cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The House of Representatives\u2019 appropriations committee on Tuesday approved a measure seeking a PHP1.65-billion supplemental budget for the Department …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":228728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-filane-mikee-cervantes","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247699","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=247699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247700,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247699\/revisions\/247700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}