Congress gives P1.25B to cancer fund–Rep. Campos
CONGRESS has bumped up to P1.25 billion for the Cancer Assistance Fund (CAF), in a bid to help a greater number of patients fight the disease that kills 96 Filipinos every day, Makati City Rep. Luis Campos Jr. said on Sunday.
Campos credited Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez for the increase in the CAF money. “The new money for the CAF is P1.25 billion. This is itemized in the 2024 national budget.
The amount is 150 percent higher than the P500 million for the CAF in 2023,” Campos, vice chairperson of the House committee on appropriations, said.
“The fund will pay for the cost of cancer screening, early detection, diagnosis, treatment and its care-related components, including the required diagnostics and laboratories for eight priority cancer types,” Campos said.
“The P1.25 billion for the CAF is on top of the P1 billion earmarked this year for the National Integrated Cancer Control Program,” according to Campos, who represents the second district of Makati.
The CAF may be availed through Department of Health (DOH)-run hospitals.
The DOH has identified the eight priority cancer types as: breast cancer; childhood cancers; gynecologic cancers; liver cancer, including colorectal and other digestive tract cancers; head and neck cancers, including thyroid; lung cancer; and prostate, renal and urinary bladder cancer.
At least 96 Filipinos die of cancer-related causes every day, and 184 cancer cases are diagnosed in 100,000 patients, according to the Philippine Society of Medical Oncology.
The top five cancers that kill the greatest number of Filipinos are lung (cancer), followed by liver, breast, colon and prostate.