Momo urges more funding for DPWH road maintenance
SURIGAO del Sur 1st District Rep. Romeo Momo Sr. raised several questions on the P311.3-billion proposed budget of the Department of Health (DOH) for 2024, questioning the unfilled positions, the annual shortage of health care workers, the non-disbursement of Covid-19 allowance, and the allocation of health budget per region.
In a separate budget deliberations, the House Committee on Appropriation vice chairman also urged his colleagues to restore the DPWH’ budget for the maintenance of national roads and highways.
Speaking to DOH Secretary Ted Herbosa, the Mindanao lawmaker zeroed in on the agency’s proposed personnel budget services vis-a-vis the number of unfilled positions.
“Your personnel budget services will increase by 6.8% from P78.5 billion in 2023 to P83.9 billion in 2024 and yet, your records show that under the Office of the Secretary (OSEC), in 2022 you have 21,438 unfilled positions and 19,850 in 2023, how do you reconcile this?,” he asked.
Raising concern on how the issue “seriously affects the effective performance of your (DOH) function,” Momo lamented that allocations given to DOH would be a waste if these would be returned to the treasury department as “savings.”
The failure of the health department to fulfill critical positions, he stressed, could also “contribute to another issue confronting the health system of the country, and that is, the migration of health care workers.”
The congressman shared that the Philippines has an annual shortage of 127,000 nurses and 114,000 doctors.
“Now, how do you plan to address this migration of Filipino health workers and the relative issue of shortage of nurses and doctors?,” he furthered.
Momo also questioned Herbosa on the non-disbursement of health emergency allowance (HEA), One Covid-19 allowance (OCA), special risks allowances, and other Covid-19 related benefits to health care workers, especially those in private hospitals.
Momo underscored the need to regionalize the DOH’s procurement process, so purchasing vaccines, medicines, and other materials by regional hospitals won’t need to pass through the head office.
“Don’t you think this practice contributes to slow and low disbursement of funds, as compared to regionalizing (or empowering your regional offices) the process of procurement?”
Coming from CARAGA region, the lawmaker was also concerned with the allocation of the health department per region.
Based on the 2024 proposed budget, Momo said that CARAGA was allocated with 0.9% compared to other regions.
Meanwhile, with his experience as former DPWH undersecretary, Momo delivered a manifestation during the DPWH budget hearing attended by Secretary Manuel Bonoan.
Noting that the deterioration of Maharlika Highway, or Pan-Philippine Highway, and other highways was “because of the poor maintenance,” he asked the appropriations committee for “basic maintenance allocation” for such task.
In 2022, the proposed budget for the maintenance of national roads and bridges was P16.4 billion, but the lawmaker lamented that only P2.4 billion was approved.
“How can you expect the high level of maintenance if this will continue to exist in the coming years? And if this will not be restored to requested amount then I would assume there will be a rapid deterioration of our national highways, not only of Maharlika but all other highways in the country,” Momo said.
“So, can we be assured by the honorable secretary that these proposals for the basic maintenance allocation be maintained and should not be touched so that we can expect a high level of maintenance in the near future or in the coming years?,” to which Secretary Bonoan expressed his concurrence.
