THE national government (NG) reported disbursed subsidies amounting to P922 million for January this year, with the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) receiving bulk of the disbursement totalling P426 million.
Based on the latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), the government allotted subsidies amounting to P922 million during the first month of this year, which contracted by 27.17 percent from the P1.266 billion in subsidies disbursed for January 2017.
Broken down, the biggest recipient for the month was the NIA, which was given P426 million, a contraction of 42.81 percent from the P745 million provided in the same month for 2017.
The other major nonfinancial government corporation that received a subsidy from the government for the month was the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) with P6 million.
Among the government-owned and -controlled corporations, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) received the biggest amount of P119 million. It did not receive subsidies from the government in January 2017.
The Philippine Children’s Medical Center also received subsidies amounting to P78 million, the Philippine Heart Center was allocated P72 million, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice) received P60 million, the National Kidney and Transplant Institute was given P49 million, the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions got P32 million, the Cultural Center of the Philippines was provided P21 million, the Lung Center of the Philippines received P20 million, and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies was allocated P11 million for the month.
Other agencies that received subsidies included the Philippine Television Network Inc. with P6 million; the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) with P5 million; the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care with P5 million; and the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority, Southern Philippines Development Authority, and the Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority each received P4 million.
One of the campaign promises under the Duterte administration was the provision of free irrigation in rural areas and improved healthcare or universal health care to all Filipinos, among others.