FREE cancer and healthcare treatments in the country have become a closer possibility with the Department of Budget Management’s (DBM) move to approve the release of the P529.2 million cancer assistance fund (CAF) last Monday, senior deputy minority leader Paul Daza said yesterday.
The CAF was approved for release following a joint memorandum between the DBM and the Department of Health (DOH), which clarified the funds’ implementing rules and regulations (IRR).
“The DBM and DOH deserve praise for acting quickly upon our call to have the cancer assistance fund ready for implementation,” said Daza,
During the House deliberations on the proposed budget of the DOH, Daza urged the immediate release and utilization of the P529 million CAF under the 2022 national budget. The intervention prompted DOH officer-in-charge and Undersecretary Rosario Vergiere to personally assure the panel that the CAF will immediately be used to help indigent cancer patients.
Daza said the return of the CAF will provide “a good momentum for the development of more policies that can widen the scope of the Cancer Control Act and our Universal Healthcare Act.”
“I hope this spirit of cooperation continues and we keep the ball rolling towards affordable and even free treatment of this disease and others,” Daza added. “We must never let our fellow Filipinos feel alone in the fight against cancer.”
The DBM has said CAF “aims to complement and supplement existing financial support mechanisms exclusive for cancer patients, persons living with cancer, and cancer survivors.”
Pursuant to the September 28, 2022 joint memorandum, the CAF “shall likewise fund outpatient and inpatient cancer control services, including but not limited to diagnostics, therapeutic procedures, and other cancer medicines needed for the treatment and management of cancer and its care-related components.”
“The said fund shall be available for utilization until December 31, 2023 in line with the adoption of the cash-based budgeting system and subject to applicable general and special provisions under the FY 2022 GAA and other existing budgetary guidelines issued by the DBM,” according to the DBM.
