Polangui official vows higher health budget in their town
Polangui Vice Mayor Herbert Borja speaks at the Multi-stakeholders’ Forum on the Full Implementation of Reproductive Health Law spearheaded by the Philippine Non-Government Organization Council and Welfare. | Photo grabbed from Borjas’ Facebook page
Polangui town’s Vice Mayor Herbert Borja vowed to increase the municipality’s health budget as their government eyes for a better health services to their people.
He aired this statement during his stint as a speaker at the Multi-stakeholders’ Forum on the Implementation of Reproductive Health (RH) Law that was spearheaded by the Philippine Non Government Organization Council and Welfare (PNGOCW).
According to him, the current health budget of Polangui is only 11.1 million pesos with 7.6 million devoted to personnel services, 1.6 million for maintenance and operations, and the remaining 1.9 million for all health programs.
Borja said that such budget is “too small compared to what is being recommended by the Department of Health (DOH) to local government units (LGUs),” adding that the health budget of LGUs should be 15 percent of the total LGU budget per year.
“We need to prioritize health budget if we want to provide better health services to the people. We should have a realistic budget for us to serve the total population of Polangui,” Borja said.
He even pointed out that if President Rodrigo Duterte gave much attention to the full implementation of RH Law during his first State of the Nation Address, the government and non-government organizations “must do something to provide the necessary health services so it could properly serve its constituents, especially those in isolated areas.”
He added that Polangui’s Sangguniang Bayan is already working along with the local chief executive to source out funds for the improvement of their health services.
