SENATOR Nancy Binay underscored Friday that there is a need to re-align the allocation of the 2022 national budget to prioritize the government’s COVID-19 response and provide lesser focus on its operations of lesser significance.
In a televised interview, Binay shared that she was expecting, together with her colleagues, that next year’s national budget would mainly address the needs of the country to combat COVID-19.
To their dismay, the budget particularly for contact tracing was not prioritized and worse is that nobody even bothered to ask why there was no allocated fund.
“During the DBCC (Development Budget Coordination Committee) briefing, in fact si Secretary Chua said na ang premise nila for next year’s budget was ‘COVID will not go away anytime soon’ so without pronouncement, we expected na ‘yong budget would address ‘yong mga needs for COVID and then, when we asked about contact tracing, ang sabi no’ng taga-DBM, there’s no budget for contact tracing so we asked [kung] bakit nawala? And then, they said kasi DILG did not ask for it. Parang sa’kin, just because hindi hiningi ng DILG, hindi niyo man lang tinanong kung bakit wala tayong budget for contact tracing,” Binay narrated.
The senator further questioned some of the government projects which—as she claimed—shall not be the utmost priority now that the country is in the middle of a health crisis.
She cited that these national plans include Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) proposed P200 million budget which is allotted to operate a media hub in Visayas.
“‘Yong PCOO, they have this budget of P200 million for a media hub which for me is not a priority for next year. I am sure isa ‘to siguro sa, for the meantime siguro, suspended muna itong project na ito. We’ll see maybe sa 2023 in a better position baka pwedeng ituloy but at the moment, I don’t see the sense of urgency in building a media hub, a Visayas media hub,” the legislator said.
Binay also pointed out the controversial ₱28-billion budget to be provided for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) as part of their responsibility to end insurgency.
According to Binay, while the armed conflict against local communists needs to be resolved, the COVID-19 pandemic weighs higher potential risks at the present moment hence, the urgency to be addressed by establishing a sufficient national budget.
“Kung sa’kin lang, mas gusto ko nga na mawala na totally ‘yong budget for NTF-ELCAC kasi nga for me, mas kalaban natin ‘yong COVID,” Binay admitted.
“Hindi ko sinasabing wala tayong problema sa insurgency. Ang sinasabi ko lang, with the lack of resources, we need to prioritize [COVID-19]. For me, kumbaga, dapat all muna tayo sa COVID-19 kasi mas malaki, mas nakakasugat itong problema natin,” she added.
Binay also recalled how the P170 million budget for the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) was previously slashed down which she would be willing to raise even more if deemed necessary.
She stressed that the role of RITM for surveillance to monitor and control the proliferation of the coronavirus must be consistent and is essential as it largely affects the analysis of COVID-19 test results across the country.
The legislator then expressed that the government needs to strengthen RITM as part of its “arsenal” to fight COVID-19 and other diseases of concern.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Senate of the Philippines Facebook page)