THREE former Health secretaries urged Congress to restore funding for the Department of Health’s (DOH) Health Promotion Bureau (HPB), warning that the proposed budget cut could undermine the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act.
In a statement on Thursday, the Healthy Philippines Alliance said the proposed 2027 budget for the HPB was reduced from P2.5 billion to about P485 million in the House of Representatives’ version of the 2027 General Appropriations Bill.
Section 30 of Republic Act 11223, or the UHC Act, provides that at least 1 percent of the DOH’s total budget appropriations must go to health promotion programs, the group said.
Former secretary Jaime Galvez Tan, HPA lead convenor, warned that reduced funding for disease prevention could lead to higher government spending on hospital care.
“Slashing funding for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases, or NCDs, will ultimately cost the government far more in secondary care and emergency hospitalizations in the future,” Galvez Tan said.
“Diabetes, heart and kidney disease, and hypertension are overwhelming Filipino families and draining our health care system. Prevention is our most cost-effective tool, and we urge Congress to restore and expand funding to protect public health,” he said.
Another former secretary, Esperanza Cabral, said the cuts could affect low-income families who depend on health promotion programs to protect them from preventable health risks.
“When the budget for health promotion shrinks to P400 million, Filipino families, especially those from low-income households, lose the support and resources they need to protect them from preventable risks. It strips the poor of their right to services that can save their lives. We cannot protect vulnerable communities when HPB is severely underfunded,” Cabral said.
Former Health chief Manuel Dayrit, meanwhile, said the proposed reduction would undermine the UHC Law’s goals.
“A budget cut of this scale undermines the mandate of the UHC Law. It is counterproductive to our goal of achieving a financially sustainable Universal Health Care which is fundamentally guaranteed to every Filipino,” Dayrit said.
“Health promotion and disease prevention is the foundation of UHC. If Congress is serious about realizing this, it must treat health promotion as a core investment rather than an expendable cost,” he added.
