VICE President Leni Robredo yesterday unveiled an “ambitious” P500-billion response plan aimed at setting the public free from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The expensive program, which is the highlight of the opposition leader’s political platform for her presidential run next year, prioritizes fighting graft and corruption, paying debts of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to hospitals, and ensuring there are enough funds for cash assistance to the poorest of the poor as the country tries to wriggle out of the pandemic.
“Kailangan maging ambitious kasi ang laki ng problema natin ngayon (We really have to be ambitious because we have a huge problem),” she told a press conference in her office at the Quezon City Reception House.
The Vice President was joined by her running mate Sen. Francis Pangilinan, former health secretaries Esperanza Cabral and Manuel Dayrit, sectoral representatives, and some members of her senatorial slate — former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, former Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat, and labor leader Sonny Matula.
Robredo said her team has so far identified P500 billion in the annual national budget which could be “re-oriented” to fund her COVID-19 response program if she becomes president.
These include “discretionary funds” in the General Appropriations Act, particularly some P4.5 billion under the budget of the Office of the President and P54 billion in Special Purpose Funds of departments and agencies. She said she is looking at funding sources from the public works and health departments, and other agencies.
While it seems too ambitious, Robredo expressed confidence her plan can be implemented, saying her office has been helping in the government’s COVID response despite having a meager budget, by prioritizing it in the list of expenditures.
Apart from ensuring there will be no graft and corruption in the use of public funds for COVID response, Robredo said her program prioritizes paying the PhilHealth’s balance to hospitals “so there will be funds for hospitals to take care of us.”
PhilHealth owes hospitals some P21.1 billion in unpaid claims as of August 24, according to its chief Dante Gierran, who disclosed the amount in a House hearing last August.
Robredo also vowed to appoint an “efficient and competent” health secretary, obviously taking a swipe at Secretary Francisco Duque who has long been blamed for the government’s lackluster performance in responding to the pandemic.
“We will choose someone who has accountability, who can run the entire bureaucracy, who understands the processes, who has technical knowledge and compassion for the people. We will strengthen the country’s healthcare system,” she said.
Dayrit and Cabral criticized the slow response to the pandemic, saying the Duterte administration should have acted as early as December 2019 when news broke out about an outbreak in Wuhan, China.
While Robredo did not oppose the government’s decision to place Metro Manila under the more relaxed Alert Level 2, she said there should be no room for complacency, especially since children are now allowed in malls.
The Vice President said this also highlights the need for the government to spend more to build more open public spaces. “In fact, very emphatic tayo na dapat pagkagastusan na natin ang mga (that we should spend more on) bike lanes,” she said.
