THE Duterte administration was prodded over the weekend to tap the unused P19.445-billion 2020-2021 calamity fund to promptly repair the fire-damaged Philippine General Hospital (PGH).
Senator Joel J. Villanueva suggested last Sunday that concerned authorities can avail of the still intact “calamity funds” to finance the immediate repair of the PGH facilities gutted by fire on Sunday. Villanueva noted that “even if [the] PGH is covered by insurance, [he’s] sure that it won’t be enough to replace the damage.”
“Kaya kailangan pong gamitin ang calamity fund,” he added.
The Senator emphasized “the PGH should be repaired in the same way that it treats patients—urgently—and the available balance of the Calamity Fund for the two fiscal years can make this possible.”
In a statement, Villanueva depicted as a “double calamity” the early morning fire that sent PGH patients, including infants in incubators and intubated adults, being hurriedly wheeled out of their hospital rooms.
“That [double calamity] is the only way to describe the plight of Covid-19 patients ending up as fire victims,” the Senator said. “Kaya po mahalagang masimulan ang pag-repair sa PGH dahil libu-libong kababayan natin ang umaasa sa kanilang kalinga at aruga,” he added. [That is why it is important to start repairing PGH because thousands of our compatriots depend on their care and nurturing.]
Villanueva, who chairs the Senate Committee on Labor, also noted that “it is not only the PGH and its patients who suffer but the public too.”
He aired serious concerns that “a PGH with a reduced operational capacity would aggravate the chronic bed shortage for patients with severe Covid-19 and others, like those with cancer, who seek treatment from one of the nation’s best public hospitals.”
In suggesting that unused calamity funds could be tapped to jumpstart efforts to “build back a better and bigger PGH,” the Senator confirmed that under the 2021 national budget passed by Congress, the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Fund (NDRRMF), also known as Calamity Fund, was appropriated P20 billion. About P5 billion of the fund is for the Marawi rehabilitation.
Moreover, Villanueva said that “added to this is the unspent P5.14 billion from the 2020 NDRRMF, carried over for 2021 spending, bringing to P25.14 billion the starting year balance of the fund,” noting that as of April 30, “only P2.909 billion has been released, while P2.779 is up for release, leaving P19.445 billion [about US$407.272 million at current exchange rates] remaining in the calamity fund.”
“Although the NDRRMF is better known as the “salvation fund” for communities hit by typhoons, floods, drought, earthquakes and other natural calamities,” the senator noted that “the provisions of the national budget actually allow its disbursement for man-made calamities such as a town razed down by fire.”