SEN. Juan Edgardo Angara yesterday said a big number of amendments will be introduced in the proposed P5.024 trillion national budget for next year, particularly the government’s response to the pandemic and other health-related interventions.
Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, said he is finalizing the contents of his sponsorship speech to be delivered today, Tuesday, as the formal plenary deliberations on the budget gets going.
Aside from the pandemic response, Angara said the other amendments will be about salaries, benefits, and allowances of health care workers; additional funds for the purchase of vaccine boosters; improving the country’s health facilities, and funding the Medical Scholarship Law, among others.
He added that the recommended amendments of the committee vice chairpersons have something to do with how the people “learn to cope or live with the virus” and help affected sectors of society, and how to extend help to the country’s school system when face-to-face classes resume as set on November 15.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, one of the vice chairpersons of the Senate finance committee, said “amendments will be introduced at least from my end” since there are a lot of issues in the proposed national budget that need to be scrutinized during plenary debates.
Lacson said the 2022 national budget is very important since this will be the first budget under the new administration that will come in halfway next year.
“We cannot overemphasize the importance of the budget for 2022, because it will be the first for the new administration as it faces humongous problems — including the heavy task of leading the nation to recovery from the effects of the pandemic,” Lacson said.
Sen. Grace Poe asked the Commission on Audit to make public its 2020 audit report on the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to enable lawmakers to have a clear picture of its financial status while the proposed budget is being scrutinized at the plenary.
“We need to know exactly how much PhilHealth owes hospitals and healthcare workers.
They must be paid soon and government must figure out where to get the funds,” Poe said.
She said the COA audit report will give them a credible audit of the state insurer’s financial condition amid complaints that PhilHealth has yet to settle its financial obligations arising from COVID-19 claims filed by private hospitals.
Due to the delayed PhilHealth payment, some private hospitals have threatened not to renew their accreditation with PhilHealth.
If this happens, Poe said: “This will make it difficult for PhilHealth members to reap the full benefits of their membership as they will have to pay for their medical expenses from their own pockets and hope that the state health insurer will reimburse them.”
Based on PhilHealth records, Poe said the state insurer received 35,147 COVID-19 claims from hospitals in 2020 but only 10,265 of the claims were paid amounting to P2.5 billion.
“We, at the Senate, need to examine PhilHealth’s finances and take into consideration in the discussions for the 2022 government budget. Before COVID-19, COA already had concerns on PhilHealth’s actuarial valuation process. COVID-19 would have made it more urgent for PhilHealth to get an actuarial study of the fund to come up with a set of recommendations that would make the fund viable and sustainable,” she added.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III earlier said the Senate aims to pass the proposed national budget by the first week of December.
Based on the calendar for the 2022 proposed national budget, Angara said their target is to have it passed on third and final reading on November 25. This will be followed by a bicameral conference and its report is scheduled to be signed on Dec. 9 before a final version of the national budget is printed for President Duterte’s signature.
Next year’s national budget is the biggest in the country’s history, with big chunks of the funds intended for the government’s pandemic response and help the country’s economy bounce back.
