THE Department of Health (DOH) is misusing public funds for its advertisements on social media and video streaming sites featuring Secretary Teodoro Herbosa promoting safe driving.
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano flagged the DOH’s digital commercials during the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) briefing at the Senate on Monday, saying that these do not promote health or health-related matters.
“Secretary Ted has commercials on YouTube, et cetera. When I looked at the [DOH] budget, I found out that it has a budget to promote health but if you watch the commercial, he’s not promoting health,” Cayetano said in Filipino.
He said that instead of spending its money on the online advertisements, the DOH should have focused on promoting urgent public health issues or used them for health-related services.
“I thought he was appointed as MMDA [Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman] because in the ads he was reminding [motorists] not to drink and drive, and not to text while driving. But I know that he is the health secretary,” Cayetano said, adding that such spending creates a disconnect between messaging and services.
Also during the budget briefing, Cayetano urged the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to consider itemizing the DOH’s budget.
“If you’re going to give (DOH) a budget on health promotion, can we just place them as a line item entry? For example, P100 million for lung cancer, P100 million on nutrition,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Villar urged the government to invest more in the country’s tourism sector, noting that that the Philippines is lagging behind its Asian neighbors as far as the tourism industry is concerned.
Villar said the government should pour in more funds to tourism infrastructures to attract more foreigners, which he said will optimize and improve the industry, and create more jobs for Filipinos.
“I think it will be beneficial if the government invests more on infrastructure projects related to tourism. I hope that will be given consideration in the proposed national budget,” he said.
Villar also said the government should also review the high tour packages and airfares in the country, which is not competitive. He said tourists would prefer to visit other Asian countries, such as Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, or Thailand, which offer cheaper packages and rates.
As an example, he said a tour package in Vietnam for three to four nights stay, including a round-trip airfare, would cost only around P18,000, which is the same as the airfare for a round-trip ticket from Manila to Siargao and vice versa.
He said the “unreasonable” round-trip price of tickets for local destinations is something that should be looked into. This is the reason why, he said, he filed Senate Resolution No. 53 seeking “to probe the cause of the high airfare for domestic flights.”
