THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) clarified earlier notions of budget cuts on some of the country’s specialty hospitals under the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP).
In a statement, the DBM shed light on concerns raised about the budget adjustments of four specialty hospitals, namely the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP), the Philippine Heart Center (PHC), the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC), under the P5.768 trillion proposed national budget for 2024.
“The Department wishes to emphasize that the government gives high regard to these specialty hospitals, which for many decades have been proven beneficial to many Filipinos.”
The statement likewise emphasized that the specialty hospital’s proposed funds for next year were similar to what the DBM included in the NEP for 2024, except for the PCMC.
The LCP, the NKTI, and the PHC were allocated a budget based on what they proposed: P561.1 million for the LCP, P1.243 billion for the NKTI, and P1.821 billion for the PHC.
For the PCMC, it was allocated a fund amounting P1.366 billion, which is lower compared to the agency’s P1.393-billion proposal, because of its ICT-related proposal with incomplete documentation, specifically the lack of ISSP submission to the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
“The DBM yields to the collective wisdom of the honorable members of Congress on whether to increase or decrease the proposed funds of government agencies during the series of budget deliberations and hearings,” the statement concluded.